CIRTex Shenkar Awarded Three-Year Research Grant from the US Air Force

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The David & Barbara Blumenthal Israel Center for Innovation and Research in Textiles has been awarded a three-year, $230,000 research grant by the US Air Force to develop a unique antenna for broadcasting a powerful electromagnetic pulse.

The grant was awarded for Shenkar’s proposal to develop the antenna from materials with a textile structure, which are based on threads made of carbon nanotubes and resistant to very high temperatures.

Dr. Eyal Sheffer, senior scientist at CIRTex, was appointed as the project’s lead researcher.  Additional researchers from the center, led by Dr. Elizabeth Amir, will also participate in the project, as well as students and faculty from the Department of Polymer Materials Engineering and the Department of Textile Design. The interdisciplinary collaboration between polymer materials engineering and textile design was one of the reasons cited for the success of the grant application.

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The selection of CIRTex Shenkar for the grant was based on the center’s proven capability in weaving and knitting carbon fibers and threads from brittle ceramic materials to create 3D structures with topological complexity; and following additional research, funded by the Israeli Ministry of Defense's Directorate of Defense Research & Development, in which carbon nanotube threads were used for wearable computing, due to their high electrical conductivity and low weight relative to metals. These fibers are manufactured in a unique process by Tortech Nano Fibers, and they have a pure carbon composition, especially resistant to high temperatures and oxygen-free environments.

The research will include the development of a temporary polymer coating to protect the nanotube threads during weaving and knitting and the development of a process to remove this coating after the textile processing is complete and the desired product has been obtained. The project’s main phase will be the research and development of manufacturing techniques for weaving and knitting to create fabrics out of nanotube threads. The structure of the fabrics will undergo optimization that includes testing the specification in US Air Force laboratories.

At the top of the page: fibers based on carbon nanotubes demonstrate high flexibility (the ability to form a knot without the nanotubes breaking).

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