Graphene-based armor will stop bullets, becoming harder than diamond at the moment of impact

Bulletproof vests and other high-end protective equipment are massive and heavy. But if such a bulletproof vest is made from a graphene-based material invented by researchers at the City University of New York, it will be much lighter, providing adequate protection. And all this is achieved due to the fact that two layers of graphene, between which a thin layer of another material is laid, at the moment of impact is strengthened and solidified, acquiring a strength exceedin
g the strength of diamond. The new multilayer material is called diamene, it consists of two layers graphene covering the silicon carbide base. In its normal form, this material, due to its low thickness, is light and flexible, like aluminum foil. But when, as mentioned above, this material is severely impacted, it becomes harder than a monolithic crystal diamond at the point of impact. And the most interesting thing is that these properties of the material appear at normal pressure and ambient temperature.

The idea of creating a new material belongs to Professor Angelo Bongiorno, who has developed a number of mathematical models describing the “joint work” of two graphene layers. After that, Bongiorno and his colleagues made the first samples of diamen, the mechanical properties of which almost completely coincided with the theoretical data obtained as a result of mathematical calculations.

An interesting fact is that the effect of instant “solidification” of the material only works when two layers of graphene are used, neither more or less

. Source: www.dailytechinfo.org