Bullet-proof armor just got a serious upgrade thanks to one of the world’s most popular supermaterials. Researchers developed a material using just two sheets of graphene that hardens upon impact.
Graphene has contributed significantly to the advancement of material science. It’s just a very tight sheet of Carbon atoms that’s thinner than a sheet of paper but it has great physical properties. Researchers continue to dig deeper in order to reveal more applications of this versatile material. They have now created a bulletproof graphene material that actually becomes harder than diamonds on impact with a fast-moving object like bullets.
This bulletproof suit material with graphene has been created by scientists at the Advanced Science Research Centre at the City University of New York. It becomes harder than diamonds on impact with a fast-moving object like a bullet.
They created this material by layering sheets of graphene which was then used to make a bulletproof suit. They used an atomistic computer for simulations of impact in order to model potential outcomes when two sheets of graphene in a honeycomb layer are subjected to sudden and high pressure.
They tested the theory using an atomic force microscope to study sheets of graphene grown on plates of silicon carbide to figure out what happens to them when pressure is applied.
The material is called diamene and it’s thinner than aluminum foil. It switches on impact immediately, which makes it very effective at stopping bullets. The researchers found that this transition does not occur if more than two layers of graphene are used or if there’s just a single layer.
“This is the thinnest film with the stiffness and hardness of diamond ever created,” said Elisa Riedo, professor of physics at the ASRC and the lead researcher on this project.
“Our new technique allows us to manipulate graphite so that it can take on the beneficial properties of a diamond under specific conditions,” said Angelo Bongiorno, associate professor of chemistry at CUNY College of Staten Island. He’s also a part of this research team.
