Monday, July 21, 2008

Invisible Armor

Graphene, which is the same as the flakes from your pencil when you write, could be the wonder material of the new millennium.

A few years ago, researchers discovered its electrical properties, making one-micron sheets of the stuff ideal for tiny computerized devices. Now a new study reveals that graphene may also be one of the strongest materials known to humans. It has a breaking strength of 55 newtons per meter. For non-newton meter readers, that means if you had a sheet of graphene that was the thickness of typical plastic wrap, it could support the weight of a 4400 lb car before breaking. Just to make things even more supercool, graphene is also transparent. Yes, ultra-thin, invisible body armor for the future!

No comments: