Tough boron-treated T-shirts

[Sammy Boy]

Hi everyone,

I read this interesting piece and thought to share it with you:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36140852/ns/technology_and_science-science/

[bigsleepj]

"D'I am Bo-Ron... I bring an important message for all mankind..."

Just kidding.

Seriously, though, it is an interesting development, though I wonder if a T-shirt body-armor is such a good idea.

[Etoh*the*Greato]

If it's ridgid instead of flexible, it'll be a good material. If it's flexible, it'll probably stop a bullet form puncturing skin but it'll still break stuff.

[Rusty Claymore]

Well, for ordinary people use, it just needs to stop knives and lethalities. Even state of the art Battle armor bruises with a high enough calibur and velocity. We are still squishy inside lol

[ShiroiHikari]

Hmm. For some reason the link just redirected me to the front page of MSNBC. I wanted to read about it. :<

Wait, I found it. Here:

T-shirts available at Wal-Mart could be converted into wearable armor, according to scientists from South Carolina, Switzerland and China.

By combining the carbon in the cotton with boron, the scientists have created a tough, lightweight fabric of boron carbide, the same material used to protect tanks. The research could lead to more comfortable body armor for soldiers and police. It could even be used to produce lightweight, fuel-efficient cars and aircraft.

"The current boron carbide armor is strong, but its not flexible and its very heavy," said Xiaodong Li, a scientist at the University of South Carolina and co-author of a recent article in the journal Advanced Materials. "We tried to solve this problem but with a different approach. In our approach, we used cotton T-shirts."
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Boron carbide is the third hardest material on Earth, after diamond and another boron-based material. In bulletproof vests and tanks, thick, heavy ceramic plates of dark gray boron carbide protect soldiers and police.

Cotton, however, couldn't be more different from boron carbide. Soft and breathable, cotton clothes are cheap and widely worn.

The trick for the scientists was combining dissolved boron with the carbon fibers inside the cotton fibers to form boron carbide.

The scientists started with a $5 package of plain, white T-shirts purchased at Wal-Mart, which they then cut into thin strips. They dipped those white cotton strips into a black solution of boron. After an hour, the strips were removed from the solution and baked in at oven at more than 1,000 degrees Celsius (1832 degrees Fahrenheit) for an hour. The heat stripped away anything that wasn't carbon or boron, and combined these two elements into boron carbide.

The resulting fabric is very different than the original materials that at the start of the process. It's lighter, stronger, tougher and stiffer than the original cotton, but it can still be bent, unlike normal boron carbide armor plates. The physical properties of the new fabric are still being tested, said Li, but "from our preliminary results we can say the test have been very, very promising."

"We expect that the nanowires can capture a bullet," said Li.

The former T-shirt can also block other hazards as well, such as cancer-causing ultraviolet light from the sun and even life-threatening neutrons emitted by decaying radioactive materials, said Li.

Body armor is just one potential application of the new research. Covering cars or aircraft with cotton-based boron carbide, instead of the metal used today, would make these vehicles significantly lighter and more fuel efficient.

The number of potential applications is enormous, said Nicholas Kotov, a scientist at the University of Michigan who also works on developing new materials for body armor.

"In bulk the layers of this material are quite strong," said Kotov. "It's a great project and is very interesting and dynamic research direction."

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Well, for ordinary people use, it just needs to stop knives and lethalities. Even state of the art Battle armor bruises with a high enough calibur and velocity. We are still squishy inside lol

Oh, I know. I just can't imagine a hit of that velocity on a flexible material causting anything but internal bleeding and bone breaks. Not MUCH better than just letting the bullet do it's thing. Sounds like it's actually gonna be more on the rigid side, though.

[Rusty Claymore]

Oh, rigid would be fun! I love armor stuff. Though as far as just letting the bullet do it's thing, sometimes it passes clean through with minimal damage, and sometimes it "travels" richotcheting off of bones and whizzing around inside you. Although if the caliber is high enough you just kinda explode...
haha, as always the best armor is not to get shot!
But there could be cool developments with this... being able to stiffen fabric like that could potentially make anime style clothes a new norm... >.<

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Oh, rigid would be fun! I love armor stuff. Though as far as just letting the bullet do it's thing, sometimes it passes clean through with minimal damage, and sometimes it "travels" richotcheting off of bones and whizzing around inside you. Although if the caliber is high enough you just kinda explode...
haha, as always the best armor is not to get shot!
But there could be cool developments with this... being able to stiffen fabric like that could potentially make anime style clothes a new norm... >.<

With how light it is, if it really isn't rigid and they need to create a rigid structure form it they could just build it up like they've got Wonderflex, which has this heat-sensitive meshing on the inside that allows you to sculpt and shape it when it's heated.