14 DAY TRIAL // In a groundbreaking new study, experts managed to develop a form of boron carbide that can be used as a nanocomposite, and woven into a fabric alongside cotton fibers. The material, which is the third strongest on the face of the planet, is both incredibly strong and very flexible, and researchers are hopeful that the new combination they produced will lay the foundation for more advanced forms of protective clothing to be produced in the future, Chemistry World reports.
At this point, experts working in the field want to get rid of very heavy body armors, such as the ones that are currently in use. While they are indeed effective in stopping incoming bullets, they are also very heavy, and stifle the movement of combatants wearing them (soldiers, policemen, security guards and so on). Therefore, many groups around the world have been working on a new approach towards developing nanocomposites, as in chemicals that are very light, and yet incredibly strong. Many believe that this class of materials is the first stepping stone towards creating new and advanced options for fabrics that would go into body armors.
What manufacturers are actually looking for is to obtain the perfect balance of strength and flexibility. Therefore, they say that rather than placing boron carbide (B4C) plates on existing clothing to make it bullet-proof, they could use it at the nanoscale, to augment the properties of another resistant material. A breakthrough in doing so was achieved at the University of South Carolina, by a team of scientists led by expert Xiaodong Li. “We were able to make large quantities of high-strength B4C nanowires using cotton T-shirts as both the template and carbon source,” the group leader says.
“Cotton fibers have lots of small pores which can be used to trap the powder. During the process the cotton fibers change to carbon fibers – which react with the boron powder, producing B4C,” he adds. The team used 100 percent cotton T-shirts for their investigation. In this approach, the team was able to surpass a previous limitation they had encountered, when the nanowires were clumping together, in the absence of cotton. But the new material is unlikely to replace established ones such as Kevlar anytime soon.
“Although it is unlikely that these threads will replace others that are comparable in strength to Kevlar, this is an interesting development in the technology of advanced textiles modified with nanoscale materials,” believes University of Michigan composite materials expert Nicholas Kotov. “It is clever to use cotton as a natural template to both prevent aggregation of emerging boron-rich nanowires and act as a carbon source. Although the performance of the final composite is not very high, the approach looks very promising,” agrees Rice University materials scientist, Boris Yakobson.