Newsgroup: it.hobby.armi
Titolo: Novità USA....

Introducing the Bullet-proof T-shirt
Well, almost. Although not yet bullet-proof, scientists have developed a new 
boron-cotton fabric that is both strong and flexible. In the process, boron 
carbide, the third strongest material in the world, is applied to cotton 
fabric at the nanoscale level. The resulting product is a t-shirt that feels 
like cotton, but is almost bullet-proof.
Anche questa � fatta!   :-) 

 Anche questa è fatta!   :-)
peccato che con un cosino cosi' leggero, l'impatto ti spappoli ossa e
organi anche in mancanza di penetrazione, vero?

 organi anche in mancanza di penetrazione, vero?
In un'ottica di difesa personale, un tessuto di quel genere difenderebbe 
quanto meno dalle coltellate, specialmente se indossato sopra un indumento 
un po' spesso. Poi, sicuramente per essere efficace contro una pallottola 
l'indumento dovrebbe essere fatto in modo da distribuire l'impatto su una 
superficie ampia (altrimenti la pallottola si porterebbe dentro indumento e 
tutto), ma probabilmente si potranno costruire giubbotti antiproiettile pi� 
leggeri di quelli in uso adesso.
Carlo "Jurassic Park" 

Riporto tutto l'articolo relativo all'oggetto.....
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Science Daily (Apr. 20, 2010) -
Nanotechnology Makes a Strong Boron-Cotton Fabric That Feels Like T-Shirt 
Material
Cotton reinforced with boron carbide is tough and hard but nonetheless 
elastic. These properties indicate future promise, but this material is not 
yet bulletproof.
American and Chinese researchers, together with ETH Zurich Professor Brad 
Nelson, recently published a paper in the scientific journal Advanced 
Materials in which they presented a new method that uses an ordinary cotton 
T-shirt as the raw material to make a tough, hard but flexible cloth. The 
University of South Carolina, which is heading this project led by Professor 
Xiaodong Li, suggests in a communiqu� that more comfortable and more 
lightweight bulletproof vests for the police, for example, could be 
manufactured from this new material. The media reported that this kind of 
vest would soon be available.
This is not inconceivable according to Nelson, Professor of Robotics and 
Intelligent Systems, who is involved in the research project together with 
his ETH Zurich team. However, although a successful breakthrough has been 
achieved with the method of manufacture, much more development work is still 
needed before conventional bulletproof materials, such as Kevlar, can be 
replaced.
Bath in boron
To create their new material, the researchers dipped strips of cotton shirt 
into a boron solution enriched with nickel, after which the pieces of cloth 
were heated to 1160�C in a furnace. At such a high temperature and under an 
inflow of argon, a furry coat of boron carbide nanofibres forms on the 
cotton microfibres. Boron carbide is the third-hardest known material at 
room temperature, and is in fact the hardest above 1100�C. After the 
nanofibres have formed, the cotton microfibres turn into boron-reinforced 
carbon microfibres. A droplet of catalyst material sits on the tip of each 
nanofibre.
Unlike solid boron carbide, these fibrils are extremely elastic and 
flexible. This is shown by tests on individual nanofibres that Nelson 
carried out in his laboratory, which specialises in studies of this kind. 
Nevertheless the boron carbide nanofibres display the strength and rigidity 
of solid boron carbide. All in all the fabric itself remains light-weight 
and flexible like the cotton T-shirt, but at the same time it is also 
tougher and more rigid at the nanoscale.
Brad Nelson works in the field of micro- and nano-robotics. For him the 
emphasis is quite clearly on the development of the raw material. Although 
the T-shirt is important as a possible application, he believes the 
manufacturing process to be the key. Nelson finds the idea of being able to 
use an everyday material like cotton simultaneously as a support substance 
and as a catalyst, thus completely changing its properties, very promising 
and revolutionary. One could certainly imagine a large number of 
applications for such materials, from self-actuated loudspeaker membranes to 
light-weight aircraft materials to protective clothing for the fire brigade. 
In addition, the boron carbide cloth almost completely blocks out a variety 
of ultraviolet rays.