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3D printed nanomaterial could replace kevlar and steel for bulletproof armor
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The Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN), made up of the MIT, Caltech, ETH Zurich and the US Army Research Lab, has used 3D printing technology at the nanoscale to form a material that is reportedly more effective at stopping a projectile than Kevlar or steel.
Thinner than a single human hair, the material is made from tiny carbon struts that form interconnected tetrakaidecahedrons – structures with 14 faces – that are fabricated via two-photon lithography.
According to the team, the nano-architected material could potentially replace kevlar for a wide array of bulletproof protective gear used by the armed forces.
According to Julia Greer, Materials Scientist at Caltech, “the knowledge from this work could provide design principles for ultra-lightweight impact-resistant materials for use in efficient armor materials, protective coating, and blast-resistant shields desirable in defense and space applications.”
The ISN has developed a nano-architected material that is reportedly more effective at stopping a projectile than Kevlar or steel. Photo via Caltech.Engineering material structures at the nanoscale
Nano-architected materials have a structure that is designed at the nanometer scale, enabling scientists to engineer virtually any imaginable 3D shape with desirable properties.
While the strength of nano-architected materials has been previously studied under compression and tension, the ISN team sought to explore how such a material might survive high-speed impacts.
The material developed by the ISN consists of interconnected tetrakaidecahedrons made up of carbon struts that are arranged via two-photon lithography. Greer’s team has been exploring the capabilities of two-photon lithography in printing nanoscale 3D printed objects since 2018.
The tetrakaidecahedron structure was first proposed by Lord Kelvin in the 19th century as theoretically one of the most efficient structures possible for filling space with duplicates of itself.
A light-sensitive photoresist forms the basis of the nano-architected material, conforming its shape based on light exposure from the lasers during the two-photon lithography process. During this process, a tightly focused laser is traced within the photoresist in three dimensions, solidifying the material until the full structure is printed.
The printed structures are then pyrolyzed via burning in a furnace at extremely high temperatures to convert the polymer to pyrolytic carbon.
Two versions of the ultra-thin material were created with different densities and blasted with microparticles of 14-micron diameters at speeds of between 40 and 1,100 meters per second. For reference, the speed of sound is 340 meters per second. The denser version of the material was found to be more resilient to the blasts, with the microparticles embedding themselves in the material rather than tearing through, as would be the case with either fully dense polymers or carbon sheets of the same thickness.
The carbon struts immediately surrounding the microparticle were observed to crumple while the overall structure remained intact. According to the ISN team, pound for pound the nano-architected material outperformed steel by more than 100 percent, and Kevlar composites by more than 70 percent.
“Historically, this geometry appears in energy-mitigating foams,” said Carlos Portela, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and lead author of the paper.
“While carbon is normally brittle, the arrangement and small sizes of the struts in the nano-architected material gives rise to a rubbery, bending-dominated architecture.
Material fabrication and results of the microparticle impact experiments. Image via Nature Materials.“We show the material can absorb a lot of energy because of this shock compaction mechanism of struts at the nanoscale versus something that’s fully dense and monolithic, not nano-architected.”
The ISN partners believe the developed material has the potential to replace Kevlar and steel for armor materials, protective coating, and blast-resistant shields used by soldiers in the armed forces. However, further development still needs to be undertaken before the material can be used in real-world applications.
Going forward, the researchers will seek to find ways to scale up the production of the material and explore how other nano-architected materials can hold up under high-speed impacts.
Further information on the nano-architected material can be found in the paper titled: “Supersonic Impact Resilience of Nanoarchitected Carbon”, published in the Nature Materials journal. The study was co-authored by C. Portela, B. Edwards, D. Veysset, Y. Sun, K. Nelson, D. Kochmann and J. Greer.
Impact processes and resulting damage of blasting the material with microparticles at supersonic speeds. Image via Nature Materials.Nanoscale 3D printing
Thanks to the range of potential applications opened up by nanoscale 3D printing, scientists are increasingly looking to optimize the technology and develop new processes, materials, and applications.
For instance, researchers from the University of Dayton have developed an enhanced, cost-effective technique to 3D print nanoscale structures, known as Opto-Thermo-Mechanical (OTM) nano-printing. Utilizing low-cost laser beams, the technique is capable of printing at scales a thousand times smaller than a human hair.
Elsewhere, scientists from Fraunhofer IMM are developing a novel multi-photon lithography process to produce nanoscale metal 3D printed structures, and researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have been working on a new method to 3D print gels and soft materials at the nanoscale. According to NIST, the technique could allow for the creation of complex microscopic structures, such as flexible electrodes, biosensors, or soft micro-robots.
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Featured image shows the ISN has developed a nano-architected material that is reportedly more effective at stopping a projectile than Kevlar or steel. Photo via Caltech.
Tags Army Research Laboratory B. Edwards C. Portela California Institute of Technology Caltech Carlos Portela D. Kochmann D. Veysset ETH Zurich Fraunhofer Institute for Microengineering and Microsystems Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies J. Greer Julia Greer K. Nelson kevlar Lord Kelvin Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT NIST University of Dayton Y. Sun
Hayley Everett
Hayley is a Technology Journalist for 3DPI and has a background in B2B publications spanning manufacturing, tools and cycling. Writing news and features, she holds a keen interest in emerging technologies which are impacting the world we live in.
3D printing of body armor or what can a fish and a paratrooper have in common?
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One of the interesting words that are increasingly found in the description of new developments has become "biomimicry", that is, the imitation of nature when creating all kinds of technological innovations.
Logic is elementary and strong, like armor: if nature has been improving itself for billions of years by the method of “poke”, called “evolution” in scientific circles, then why reinvent the wheel when you can steal ready-made ideas? By the way, it is about armor that will be discussed in our story.
Among the many researchers who turned their eyes to nature for inspiration was a collaborative team of scientists from the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, under the overall direction of Stefan Rudik. Working together, the two teams came up with the idea of body armor that provides unprecedented freedom of movement, but can still stop bullets and shrapnel. The inspiration for the new concept was… fish scales. For the production of such protective suits, it is planned to use additive technologies.
“Many species of fish combine flexibility with good protection due to the presence of scales,” says Rudik.
“Looking at the example provided by nature itself, we tried to recreate a flexible protective structure by combining two layers of materials. The flexible inner layer serves as the base for the outer layer of tough, armor-like scales."
Something similar has previously been done by researchers at Northeastern University in Massachusetts, who printed ABS flakes on an Objet Eden 333 3D printer and then attached the resulting samples to a silicone liner. The result of the experiments was a flexible composite "matter" that can protect against impacts. The work of Rudik and his team in a similar direction received funding from the US military, interested in developing the concept into real samples suitable for field testing.
One of the advantages of such body armor will be a high degree of customization. Armor can be easily adjusted not only to the figure of a fighter, but also changed in accordance with operational requirements: a sniper does not have to be immured from head to toe, but in close combat, additional protection on the arms and legs will not hurt.
Thus, "fish armor" will provide individual and operational flexibility.
In general, scaly armor has been used in various armies for many centuries. Such armor was also popular among wealthier Russians, being preferred to ordinary chain mail because of better protection, but not restricting movement, like armor. That's just the weight of such armor was very significant, quickly wearing out the fighters. The developers hope that modern materials science will significantly reduce weight, but at the same time increase the level of protection.
Although the work is still in the early stages of testing, military interest in the project suggests that prototypes will soon appear in conflict zones, which will confirm the golden words of the dressmaker at the court of Marie Antoinette: "Everything new is well forgotten old."
Post supported by the airsoft4you community: https://vk.com/airsoft4you
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New material will allow the printing of ultra-strong products, such as body armor plates
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Today's hero is Azamat Khashirov, 4th year student of the Faculty of Chemistry of the Kabardino-Balkarian University named after I.
I. HM. Berbekov, it was he who developed a new nanocomposite material for 3D printing based on ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). Also, the composition includes halloysite - a natural material that has a nanotubular structure, which gives additional strength characteristics to the finished product.
By the way, a similar nanocomposite filament is also produced abroad, but according to the developers, the domestic thread will differ from it in increased heat resistance and strength, as well as lower shrinkage and moisture absorption. And, of course, it will also cost less, especially in the context of sanctions and widespread import substitution.
I would also like to mention that for the first time Azamat started developing nanocomposite materials back in 2011, when he graduated from school, and more recently, at an exhibition of innovative projects, his invention was recognized as the best. This is my hint to skeptics who believe that today's supply of schools with 3D printers will not work .
.. we will see the result in about 3-4 years8).
“And what about body armor?” someone will ask. The fact is that today bulletproof vests of various protection classes are produced from UHMWPE. Its characteristics are comparable to Kevlar, and in some characteristics even surpass it. For example, Kevlar loses strength by almost 2 times when wet, and when dried, it is not completely restored. In addition, the nanocomposite material can be used in space, military, engineering and many other fields of activity.
At the moment, the material is being tested for strength, fire resistance, flexibility, etc. Within a month, the university plans to purchase a good 3D printer in order to start testing its development (and this is already a hint to printer manufacturers.;)
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