Polymer with Enhanced Conductivity for Broadband Spectral Obscurant Applications

The Army is interested in developing conductive polymer materials that have a very high conductivity, but are also processable into a range of particle shapes and sizes. These anisotropic particles will be tuned to provide obscuration properties in broad portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. PSI, and its partner Prof. Jennifer Irvin at the Texas State University, will develop two parallel paths to significantly enhance the conductivity of commercially available PEDOT and PANi inherently conducting polymers (ICP). Our team will synthetically integrate two types of conductive molecular hubs (CMH)with the ICP"s during their polymerization to overcome the resistive chain to chain electron hopping required for material bulk conductivity. These structures are not composites, but conjugated molecular networks that overcome the chain to chain limiting electron transfer resistance in conventional ICP"s. Through the polymerization of the CMH with the ICPs, PSI will optimize the conductivity and processability of the CMH-ICPs. We will measure conductivity and visible and IR transmission in film, flake and particle forms to better understand the impact of particle geometry on extinction. On a Phase II program, we will scale-up production of the CMH-ICP, formulate it with a biopolymer host and fabricate obscurant nanofibers for delivery to ECBC.