Novel Methods To Develop Graphene Obscurant Materials

Obscurant materials are used by the Army to protect both the soldier and his equipment. Several obscurant systems have been developed over the years to counter various threats in many areas of the electromagnetic spectrum. Historically, work has focused on infrared and visible signature reducing materials individually. With the new threats and sensors, requirements have been established for devices to defeat both types of threats using a single, low-toxicity and highly effective material. Graphite flakes have been used on large area screening systems and offer very low toxicological footprints. However, for volume-limited packaging applications, such as hand grenades, graphite materials typically have not performed as well as metal materials due to their low conductivity. Therefore, the standard M76 brass grenade was developed. But the toxicological and environmental concerns are so great that training with these devices is very restricted. A carbon-based material that offers extremely high conductivity is needed to meet these new emerging requirements as well as the policies of low environmental impact. JSJ Technologies, together with National Nanomaterials and Texas State University, proposes to produce a very highly conductive graphene flake material by a novel method that will allow very low cost, high volume production of the material.