Shelf-Stable Red Phosphorus

Smoke-producing munitions such as mortars, smoke pots, and hand grenades are an important class of ordnance employed by the US military in both training and mission scenarios. These devices serve a number of vital functions including smoke screening for vision obscurance and marking of targets. A number of smoke-producing munitions used by the USMC rely upon red phosphorus (RP) to generate a smoke that provides screening in both the visible and IR spectra. Although RP performs exceptionally, its susceptibility to degradation during storage to form phosphine and other hazardous materials has risen concerns for personnel health. In this Phase I SBIR program, Infoscitex Corporation (IST) proposed to enable the continued use of RP through development of a novel coating system that will render it shelf-stable. IST will develop an inorganic coating system that will address shortcomings of previous attempts to stabilize RP, and will ensure that performance of existing smoke-producing munitions is maintained.