Non-thermal Plasma Synthesis and Passivation of Halogen Containing Chemical Reagents for Prompt-Agent-Defeat Weapons

Use of high explosives for neutralization of bio-agent stockpiles results in unintentional release of live bio-agents to the surrounding environment most of the time. New biocide containing energetic formulations (such as Al nanoparticles-I2O5) overcome the shortcomings of high explosive approach. Since I2O5 is water or moisture sensitive and loses its biocide properties over time, it needs to be stabilized or passivated. Lynntech, in collaboration with Texas Tech University, proposes an advanced large scale manufacturing and coating process for synthesis and passivation of I2O5. The proposed approach enables the synthesis of I2O5 from the gaseous iodine and oxygen at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperatures without any wet chemistry protocols involved. Preliminary results demonstrated that >99.9% I2O5 powder can easily be produced. Furthermore, synthesized I2O5 can be immediately coated with a passivation coating in order to improve the shelf lifetime and its handling. The power consumption per reactor module was measured to be less than 50 Watts, which makes the proposed approach highly energy efficient for large scale manufacturing. During the Phase I, manufacturing parameters will be further optimized, physical, chemical, and combustion characteristic will be evaluated, and 500 gr to 1 kg sample will be delivered to DTRA for performance testing.