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Bullet-Proof Sheets of Carbon Nanotubes

Posted by kdawson on from the general-products-hull dept.

An anonymous reader notes a CNN.com report on Nanocomp Technologies, the first in the world to make sheets of carbon nanotubes. "In April, [CEO] Lashmore had a mechanical multicaliber gun shoot bullets at different versions of his sheet, each less than a fifth of an inch thick. ... Army tests show the material works as well as Kevlar. The military also hopes to replace copper wiring in planes and satellites with highly conductive nanotubes, saving millions of dollars in fuel costs."

10 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. Escalation by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 1, Interesting

    If artillery has problems getting through carbon nanotubes, oxyaluminum nitride, and spinel, how long until the artillery itself is made of those materials?

    --
    Bruce Perens.
    1. Re:Escalation by Kentaree · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That's an interesting question, but doesn't it apply to kevlar too? We've had kevlar vests for years, but no ammunition made of kevlar that I've heard of. Maybe the material isn't suitable to be shot out at high speeds/pressures?

    2. Re:Escalation by FCAdcock · · Score: 1, Interesting

      >>People also used leather as armor, but so far no one has dug up a leather sword.

      Um, I'm pretty sure that would be called a whip. And yes, we dig those up all the time. Some people still use them in fact...

      A leather whip can do just as much damage as a sword. It may not be as sharp, but the tip of a whip is the fastest thing short of a fighter jet.

      --
      --Forest C. Adcock--
    3. Re:Escalation by hot+soldering+iron · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Interesting anecdote: When I was in the service (Army Infantry), some of the older sargents got to talking about unusual ammunition that they'd used/tested/heard about. Depleted Uranium came up, because it was before the first Desert Storm and no one had used it before. The other one still hasn't been used that I know of. It was a hollow plastic nose & metal cup round filled with liquid teflon.

      The story went that during Viet Nam, a sniper was sent to wound some particular General, not kill him. He wasn't the greatest strategist, so we knew how to handle him, and didn't want him dead, but for some upcoming engagement we wanted him on the sidelines, so he was marked for a wounding and not a dirt-nap. They sent the sniper out with these new liquid teflon rounds to try. Mistake. When the round hit the General in the shoulder, the liquid came out in strings and tore his whole arm and shoulder off, inducing massive shock and bleeding him out in seconds.

      Probably BS, but makes for an interestingly morbid story.

      --
      When you want something built, come see me. If you want correct grammar and spelling, get a F*ing liberal arts student.
  2. You missed one - by Kupfernigk · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yeah, but won't the existing technology develop to do the same job faster and cheaper than this one can be got to market? That's why wood, ceramics, iron and cement are still the base materials of civilisation, rather than titanium, magnesium and carbon fiber.

    --
    From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
  3. Re:"Mechanical multicaliber gun"? by Tekfactory · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Oh yeah, not to reply to myself, but shortly after high school I did some patent drawings for a cylindrical weapons mount you could load into a 120mm smoothbore cannon and inside the mount you could configure a .308, .50 cal or 25mm match grade barrels attached to an trigger mechanism that could be activated remotely while loaded in the main cannon of an Abrams.

    This was supposed to be used for training purposes using ammo already found in the US Armory stores.

    IIRC they went with a German training aid instead.

  4. Re:vs Kevlar by florescent_beige · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There is already a material out there that is better than Kevlar, it's called Spectra. It's an ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene and despite its existence Kevlar continues to be the standard.

    Something needs to be *a lot* better to displace an established standard, not just somewhat better.

    --
    Equine Mammals Are Considerably Smaller
  5. Yeah but... carcinogenic? by ukemike · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Carbon nanotubes act a lot like asbestos in our lungs. We don't know that it is carcinogenic yet, but in the initial reaction that CNT causes in mouse lung tissue is the same sort of reaction that asbestos fibers cause. It's not surprising because CNT are so similar to asbestos fibers. They are nanoscale fibers, they are highly resistant to chemical degredate. So I think it would be safer to assume that it is a probably human carcinogen and behave like it is so that 20-40 years from now we don't have hundreds of thousands of people with CNT related lung cancer.

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    -- QED
  6. More bad than good? by saurongt · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Carbon nanotubes are known to be toxic. Wouldn't having them next to your body in a situation where you are likely to bleed be kind of unnerving? http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13946-nanotubes-toxic-effects-similar-to-asbestos.html

  7. Re:Calling BS by budgenator · · Score: 2, Interesting

    it's probably the strength, using copper in air-frames pulling 10 G's is challenging, carbon-NT could hold up under 100's of G's such as guided artillery rounds or missiles that would turn a human pilot into jelly.

    --
    Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds