Ordinary T-shirts could become body armor

Body armor tech just keeps getting better and better.

Researchers at the University of South Carolina have created a way to transform your ordinary white cotton T-shirt into bulletproof body armor.

Ordinary T-shirts could become body armor

Researchers at the University of South Carolina, collaborating with others from China and Switzerland, drastically increased the toughness of a T-shirt by combining the carbon in the shirt’s cotton with boron - the third hardest material on earth. The result is a lightweight shirt reinforced with boron carbide, the same material used to protect tanks.

Dr. Xiaodong Li, USC College of Engineering and Computing Distinguished Professor in Mechanical Engineering, co-authored the recent article on the research in the journal, Advanced Materials.

“USC is playing a leading role in this area. This is a true breakthrough,” Li said, calling the research “a conceptual change in fabricating lightweight, fuel-efficient, super-strong and ultra-tough materials. This groundbreaking new study opens up unprecedented opportunities.”

The scientists started with plain, white T-shirts that were cut into thin strips and dipped into a boron solution. The strips were later removed from the solution and heated in an oven. The heat changes the cotton fibers into carbon fibers, which react with the boron solution and produce boron carbide.

The result is a fabric that’s lightweight but tougher and stiffer than the original T-shirt, yet flexible enough that it can be bent, said Li, who led the group from USC. That flexibility is an improvement over the heavy boron-carbide plates used in bulletproof vests and body armor.

“The currently used boron-carbide bulk material is brittle,” Li said. “The boron-carbide nanowires we synthesized keep the same strength and stiffness of the bulk boron carbide but have super-elasticity. They are not only lightweight but also flexible. We should be able to fabricate much tougher body armors using this new technique. It could even be used to produce lightweight, fuel-efficient cars and aircrafts.”

The resulting boron-carbide fabric can also block almost all ultraviolet rays, Li said.

Physorg.com

If they keep this up, bullets may just become obsolete!

I love it! Although, I the bullet might not penetrate, but it will hella hurt

Makes me wonder if this is something anyone can do or if you would need a PHD and a fancy physics lab to make a body armor T-shirt.


I'll bet that boron solution costs a fortune too.

reply to post by FortAnthem


This type of clothing already exists

Miguel Caballero bulletproof clothing

Originally posted by SirPsychoSexy
reply to post by FortAnthem

 

This type of clothing already exists

Miguel Caballero bulletproof clothing

I know about that place. They put flexible bulletproof plates into stylish clothing. It's still standard body armor technology.

The article I found is about treating an ordinary T-shirt in a chemical bath to turn it into body armor. With this tech, any piece of clothing could become body armor without special tailoring.


They also think they can use this tech to create lightweight cars and aircraft, probably from treated cloth.

With a stepson in the Army, I was both amazed and intrigued by this development. And no, not just anyone can do it - unless they have a lab with a furnace that can bake something for a couple hours at around 1,800 degrees F.

I think it's worth reading what the ersearcher actually says, rather than the overexcited journo's spin on. The headline ought to be "Ordinary T-shirts could not become body armor".

Being tougher and stiffer than a normal T-shirt does not make it armor...this is simply a way of demonstrating a new fabrication technique.
[edit on 19-4-2010 by Wembley]

[edit on 19-4-2010 by Wembley]

Where could i get something like this? And cost?