Smokes Originating From Biological Materials

We propose a new type of military smoke that is based on the optical properties of selectively designed, yet low cost, fabricated nanoscale components. These smokes will have a strong extinction in the visible and infrared regions of the spectra, but canalso selectively block or let pass specific wavelengths of light. Such a smoke can be designed to have a field-selectable transmissive window that allows for an obscured area to be visible only at particular wavelengths. Biological systems will eithercreate the metallic structures directly or be used as templates for subsequent fabrication of the nanoparticles. The composition of the constituent nanoparticles will be optimized to reduce toxicity and environmental impact, allow for easy and inexpensivefabrication, and provide a high extinction military smoke. Development of military smokes and obscurants using biological systems or templates will provide an inexpensive, scalable, non-toxic, self-replenishing solution for the production of militarysmokes. The developed smoke will allow both military and civilian operatives the ability to select and utilize smokes with a desired transmission window for specific applications (defensive or offensive field deployment, crowd control, hostage situation)and conditions (amount of available light, terrain, weather, dust, etc.).