IMPROVING EXISTING BODY ARMOR MATERIALS

Though Kevlar’s long been the mainstay of military soft armor, the new rock star of ballistic fibers is Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene.

Hottest off the press in terms of refining the substance, researchers in Brazil have blended UHMWPE with boron carbide nanoparticles. Resulting in a potential ballistic performance increase of more than 300%.

Despite originating with the Mongol hordes and the U.S. military first toying with the idea back in the late 19th century, interest in silk armor has seen a revival of late. EXPLORING NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR BODY ARMOR Some materials for military body armor come and go (think Zylon). But we never know if something new might turn out to be earth-shattering. Like graphene. Technically put, it’s a honeycomb-patterned sheet of bonded carbon atoms with a thickness of just one atom. Alone, the uber lightweight compound wouldn’t hold up to being hammered by bullets . But experts at C.U.N.Y. figured out that by double layering the graphene (AKA diamene), it switches from flexible to harder than diamond when pressure’s applied.

Already, the DNA of farmed silkworms has been genetically tweaked to whip up artificial silk that’s at least as mighty and as stretchy as that from spiders.