Boron+TShirt+Heat = Bulletproof?

[Jubbie]

Boron-treated T-shirt can stop speeding bullet, says scientist | News.com.au

• Tee dipped in third-hardest material
• Can capture bullet, says professor
• Also blocks ultraviolet rays, radiation

THE humble T-shirt may soon be strong enough to stop a speeding bullet.

Scientists in the US have developed a flexible shirt made of the same material used in tank armour, by combining carbon in the shirt with the third-hardest material on Earth, boron.
"It could even be used to produce lightweight, fuel-efficient cars and aircrafts," Xiaodong Li, from the University of Southern Carolina, wrote in the journal Advanced Materials.
The plain white T-shirts are dipped into a boron solution, then heated in an oven at more than 1000C, which changes the cotton fibres into carbon fibres.
The carbon fibres react with the boron solution and produce boron carbide - the same material used to make bulletproof plates in armoured vests.
The resulting material was stiffer than the original cotton tee, but still flexible enough to be worn as such.
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"We expect that the nanowires can capture a bullet," Prof Li said.
But bullets are just the beginning for the new miracle material.
Prof Li said the T-shirts could also block "almost all" ultraviolet rays, and possibly life-threatening neutrons emitted from decaying radioactive material.

 

[garagegunmaker]

That sounds very interesting. Wonder what the $$$ would be. I would think that maybe it could stop the bullet, but the blunt trama would be immense.

 

[Protest]

That sounds very interesting. Wonder what the $$$ would be. I would think that maybe it could stop the bullet, but the blunt trama would be immense.

Yeah, if we thought paintball bruises were bad...

 

[jeremy]

I could see the application as maybe a fragment stopper. It would possibly have some good as that. But, as a bullet stopper the blunt trauma that it would cause would be the thing that would be my worry...

 

[Eddie]

I could see the application as maybe a fragment stopper. It would possibly have some good as that. But, as a bullet stopper the blunt trauma that it would cause would be the thing that would be my worry...

Yep. Take a bag of chips. Punch it. Your fist won't actually penetrate the bag. Look at the chips. The fact that a bullet won't penetrate something does not neccessarily save the wearer.

 

[jeremy]

I do think this would have a lot of possible applications in the realm of combat though...

Shirt sleeves or pants legs that may slow or stop shrapnel. That would be great in and of it's self.

My next thought is how breathable is this stuff?!