Super armor?

[JWB]

This is a little outside my expertise. Is it viable?

US creates strongest-ever armor material with 100 trillion bonds per cm²

[sunday]

3 hours ago, JWB said:

This is a little outside my expertise. Is it viable?

US creates strongest-ever armor material with 100 trillion bonds per cm²

Looks a bit like an analogue of chain mail at the molecular level.

Cool.

[KV7]

It could be very useful as a general technology but there is not a good reason to think it would be good for armour, there is no indication of superlative mechanical properties

[lemd]

What make a good armor?

Isnt it chain mail a good anologue? If it has good basic property like tensile strength, a 3D chain mail at molecular level could change mechanical propery drastically. Something like fiber, e.g glass fiber or carbon or UHMWPE fiber are often poor because of the resin that stick them together. If chained in 3D, especially at molecule lvl it could have new properties like hardness or good compressive strength, which often lack in fibers composite for example.

[KV7]

8 hours ago, lemd said:

What make a good armor?

Isnt it chain mail a good anologue? If it has good basic property like tensile strength, a 3D chain mail at molecular level could change mechanical propery drastically. Something like fiber, e.g glass fiber or carbon or UHMWPE fiber are often poor because of the resin that stick them together. If chained in 3D, especially at molecule lvl it could have new properties like hardness or good compressive strength, which often lack in fibers composite for example.

The known  advantages of this material are strain hardening, which allows for flexibility but hardening on impact. But for most armour applications flexibility is not desirable if it comes at the cost of lower specific strength, hardness, toughness etc.

 

[DB]

Maybe its application space is roughly where Kevlar fabric sits now?

[rmgill]

On 1/22/2025 at 10:11 AM, lemd said:

What make a good armor?

Isnt it chain mail a good anologue? If it has good basic property like tensile strength, a 3D chain mail at molecular level could change mechanical propery drastically. Something like fiber, e.g glass fiber or carbon or UHMWPE fiber are often poor because of the resin that stick them together. If chained in 3D, especially at molecule lvl it could have new properties like hardness or good compressive strength, which often lack in fibers composite for example.

3d printed inconel chain links embedded in a resin? 

[KV7]

19 hours ago, DB said:

Maybe its application space is roughly where Kevlar fabric sits now?

Yes, but with the advantage of stiffness at high strain. I could see applications in sporting apparel where you want some flexibility but also hardness when struck by a  puck,ball, stick, sword etc. to reduce bruising damage.

[Zadlo]

Another 2D "wonder"

 

 

[KV7]

3 hours ago, Zadlo said:

Another 2D "wonder"

 

 

Do you have a link ? The nonlinear effect is odd.

[Zadlo]

On 2/2/2025 at 2:01 AM, KV7 said:

Do you have a link ? The nonlinear effect is odd.

It's at the end of the quoted article

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads4968