Portugal is developing a new graphene-based material with radar-absorbing properties could help drones and warplanes go undetected.
GTechPlasma is leading the project to develop a graphene-based coating for stealth applications, using a customisable plasma-based system developed at the Plasma and Nuclear Fusion Institute at Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon.
“Right now, we are very focused on developing coatings for radar and electromagnetic radiation absorption,” said Bruno Soares Gonçalves, co-founder of GTechPlasma.
The material is designed to absorb electromagnetic radiation, including radar waves. This has obvious applications in the stealth and defence sectors, but also in radiation and rare metals management, as an Instituto Superior Técnico researcher commented: “There are many other areas where this type of material has potential for electromagnetic shielding, to reduce radiation. That is why we believe we have an extremely interesting material for radar-absorbing coatings.”
Bruno Soares Gonçalves went on to say: “Our estimates for what our material can achieve are that an F-16 would have the radar signature of a bird. That means a huge reduction in radar signature, making the aircraft invisible and far more difficult to detect.”
Controlling graphene at an atomic level
Graphene is created from base ingredients such as ethyl alcohol or methane. The resulting sheet of carbon is just one atom thick, requiring precision plasma technology to be manipulated.
“There are many other applications where graphene and its derivatives can be used, but for that you need to control the entire process at atomic level. And that is what we are able to do with our device, which is patented in the United States, Japan and Europe,” explains the president of the Plasma and Nuclear Fusion Institute.
Putting Portugal at the cutting edge of graphene-based stealth technologies
“At present, there is no other solution in Europe, and even worldwide only the United States has one. But the material that, for example, coats the F-35 is a material that cannot be exported. So we have a material ‘made in’ Portugal with strong application potential,” says Bruno Soares Gonçalves.
GTechPlasma’s devices are already producing 40 milligrams per minute of high-quality graphene. They have also partnered with Plasmaphene to industrialise the machinery involved in production.
“Our goal on the factory floor is to have multiple devices, not only because of the redundancy that brings, but also because it allows us to produce multiple materials simultaneously in different devices. In practice, our machine is a platform for multiple materials. We can change the recipe and obtain different materials,” the Técnico researcher explains.
Currently the graphene-material is produced as a light black powder, but the team hope to develop ready-to-apply solutions, such as coatings or paints that can be applied to drones. A Portuguese drone manufacturing company has already received 260 grams of the material in the first of many targets partnerships with firms in the defence sector.
A GTechPlasma representative commented: “The goal is to provide solutions that are as close as possible to something the client can apply, instead of supplying just a powder that the client then has to work out how to integrate.”