Shubhra Gangopadhyay will work on developing new defense materials. The Army contract will allow her to develop new warheads and munitions.
Shubhra Gangopadhyay, an MU researcher, has been awarded a $4.79 million contract from the U.S. Army to use her expertise in nanotechnology in developing alternative fuel solutions for rockets.
Gangopadhyay is a professor of electrical and computer engineering in MU’s College of Engineering and serves as co-director of MU’s International Center for Nano/Micro Systems and Nanotechnology. Nanotechnology involves the use of microscopic particles in the creation of electrical circuits or devices.
“Our goal is to use microchip technology to make smaller and better- controlled warheads and munitions systems,” Gangopadhyay said in an MU press release. The contract she received is broken up into several projects to be completed over the next three years. Her first task is to create a material-based propellant that produces more pressure and burns longer than rocket fuels currently in use.
She has been working with the Army to develop the technology for the past four years, and the latest contract is to create a usable product.
Though the agreement focuses primarily on defense-related devices, Gangopadhyay also plans to research possible uses of nanotechnology in the search for alternative energy solutions “for the betterment of mankind,” she said in the release.
Gangopadhyay was selected to receive the contract because her research incorporates nanotechnology with microchip-based technology. The combination of the two technologies can generate a powerful reaction, producing millions of shock waves capable of detecting or initiating explosives, according to the release.
However, Gangopadhyay said the technology is safe to work with.
“We are doing nanotechnology, so we are using very minute quantities of material,” she said in a phone interview. “And because we are working with microchip technology, it’s even smaller. Even if a microchip blows up, it’s like a firecracker.”
The U.S. Department of Defense currently has one of the largest research and development budgets in the U.S. government, said Jim Coleman, vice chancellor for research at MU. He said that although MU has not taken full advantage of Department of Defense funding in the past, Department of Defense grants and contracts to MU have become more frequent recently. The contract received by Gangopadhyay is “quite a large one,” Coleman said.
However, Gangopadhyay hopes that eventually her technology will have civilian applications as well. Her lab is working toward adapting the technology to produce power and possibly be used to image the body to search for diseases.
“This nanotechnology is similar to explosives, and there is a lot of chemical energy in it,” she said. “We’re trying to convert that into electrical energy that we can use for power generation.”
As a prolific researcher, Gangopadhyay has her own lab filled with students, Coleman said. He said contracts such as this one give those students “unparalleled opportunities to work on applied research.”
The research performed to develop the devices called for in the contract will also enhance the teaching ability of Gangopadhyay, as well as other researchers working with her, Coleman said.
“They can take what they learn (from the research) into the classroom and keep students on the cutting edge,” Coleman said.
Gangopadhyay’s research may end up creating new energy sources. She said her new technology has benefits over traditional energy created by explosives.
“If we can work toward making energy, while they could use four grams of explosive, we are using an amount 1,000 times smaller to get the same amount of energy out,” she said. “We call it power generation without detonation.”