Scalable Process for Drying of Obscurants

Drying of obscurant materials by traditional methods results in agglomeration because individual obscurant flakes are drawn together by capillary forces and then retained by van der Waals forces. Freeze drying and supercritical drying are better than traditional methods but are generally cost-prohibitive for drying of low-value and mass-produced materials. Lynntech proposes to develop a process based on spray drying followed by immediate surface functionalization to obtain dry and well-dispersed obscurant material. This approach eliminates the capillary forces present in evaporative drying that causes tight aggregation between the neighboring obscurant flakes. Lynntech will collaborate with the faculty at Texas A&M University for their expertise in processing of two-dimensional materials and their characterization. During Phase I, the dried obscurant material will be extensively characterized to ascertain its physical and chemical properties and the overall process will be optimized to obtain well-dispersed obscurant material. The final obscurant material will be provided to the Army for evaluation of its performance as an obscurant.