Nanocomposite Clear Coatings for Repair of Transparent Materials

Transparent protective materials like goggles and blast shields protect soldiers while allowing visibility. Often made from polycarbonate (PC) plastics, these transparent barriers are very tough; but can be easily scratched by sand, greatly decreasing transparency. Once visibility is impaired, these transparent armors can become a hindrance to the soldier rather than a life-saving device. Fillers and polishes are commercially available that attempt to salvage scratched PC surfaces; unfortunately, most of these products are often temporary or rely on removing surface material in time consuming methods that obscure the transparency of the surface and are poor ideas to retain the integrity of blast shield. Restoring transparent armor in a quick, permanent process that filled in the scratches and re-established clarity of the plastic (without sacrificing toughness) would be preferable to replacing scratched materials with new devices. One solution to this problem is to combine several existing technologies and the results of some predictive modeling studies to produce a nanocomposite clear coating for polycarbonate plastics. TDA Research, Inc. (TDA) will apply our nanoparticle technology to prepare nanoparticles that are compatible with transparent coatings suitable for coating PC. Not only should our nanoparticles fill in the scratches on PC surfaces, they should also add scratch resistance to the new coatings and transparent armor damaged by sand abrasion to full usefulness.