Nanotech materials and how they can revolutionize underwater sensor coatings

Abstract

Most of the materials presently used to coat or encapsulate underwater acoustic sensors have been around for decades. The performance of these materials from a variety of perspectives can be characterized as barely adequate. Thus, these limitations have forced design engineers to accept many performance versus cost and/or service lifetime compromises. These compromises now threaten the viability of some of the U. S. Navy’s most cherished future hardware concepts, such as miniaturized, distributed sensors, large-area sensors/smart skins, and high-powered acoustic sources. Recent developments in nanomaterials and polymer nanocomposite technology suggest that a major advance in marine coatings and encapsulation technology would enable many of these concepts and initiatives to reach fruition. Because of the enormous surface area that a dispersion of such particulates possesses, relatively small loadings (typically a few weight percent) in a suitable polymer matrix may exhibit orders of magnitude-scale improvements in certain physical properties by influencing the structure of the polymer matrix in ways not possible to achieve with conventional technology. This presentation will review ongoing nanotech composite research at NAVSEA division Newport, and discuss the potential for nanotechnology to trigger a revolution in naval coatings and encapsulation technology in the next 3–5 years.