Practical uses are sketchy at this stage, but a group of scientists in southern California have figured out how to up-armor a cotton t-shirt with boron Carbide nanowires.
Using a cotton t-shirt as a template, the crew soaked cotton squares in a solution containing boron powder and then cooked it. The heat turned the cotton into carbon and the fine boron particles trapped in the fibers of the t-shirt reacted and bonded to make a flexible boron carbide fabric.
The scientists haven’t claimed the resulting material is more bullet resistant than Kevlar, and there’s still the issue of lethal levels of backface deformation to contend with when considering such a light and flexible material for ballistic protection.
So, this isn’t a bulletproof t-shirt. But, it is a big step toward a composite material that will make armor of all types lighter, more pliable and in the case of body armor, more comfortable.
