Carbon nanotube mats tagged posts

New Lightweight Super Material could Battle Bullets, Deflect Space Debris

This illustration shows a high-speed microprojectile penetrating the researchers’ nanofiber mat, which consists of carbon nanotubes and Kevlar nanofibers. Image courtesy of Ramathasan Thevamaran.

University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers have created a nanofiber material that outperforms its widely used counterparts—including steel plates and Kevlar fabric—in protecting against high-speed projectile impacts.

Basically, it’s better than bulletproof.

“Our nanofiber mats exhibit protective properties that far surpass other material systems at much lighter weight,” says Ramathasan Thevamaran, a UW–Madison assistant professor of engineering physics who led the research.

He and his collaborators detailed the advance in a paper published recently in the journal ACS Nano.

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