Intercalated Carbon Microfibers for Broadband Visible-IR Obscuration

The U.S. Army has long recognized the potential of carbon based microfibers and nanofibers for use as obscurant materials.However, while base materials such as carbon nanofibers have demonstrated some of the most promising performance, a need exists to refine key aspects of the material to make it suitable for use as a broadband visible IR obscurant sought by the U.S. Army.Applied Sciences, Inc. (ASI), proposes to deliver the ideal visible-IR obscurant material by combining known and scalable processing techniques with its already established production and conductivity enhancement processing.These techniques and capabilities combined, will enable a precise control over the production, manipulation and transformation of high-aspect ratio carbon microfibers into effective engineered obscurants, which meet the targeted requirements set forth by the U.S Army. The development work will be further guided and informed by Prof. Charles W. Bruce team at New Mexico State University (NMSU).