Boron carbide - the third hardest material on earth (behind Mormon magic underwear and whatever surrounded Famous Ex's heart) - has been engineered into the fabric of cotton T-shirts, dramatically increasing its toughness. Y'know, in case you have a particularly rough day at the beach.
Military forces use plates of boron carbide (B4C) as ceramic inserts for bulletproof clothing, but they can restrict mobility. A breakthrough between researchers in China, Switzerland and the US, found that the durable and porous nature of woven cotton fibres were ideal for creating a nanocomposite. 'We were able to make large quantities of high-strength B4C nanowires using cotton T-shirts as both the template and carbon source,' said the research leader from the University of South Carolina. The cotton template overcame a previous problem of the nanowires clumping together.
In the research, squares were cut from 100 per cent cotton T-shirts and soaked in a solution of boron powder and a nickel-based catalyst, before being heated to around 1100ºC for four hours under a flow of argon (to stop the material burning, duh). "Cotton fibres have lots of small pores which can be used to trap the powder," he explained. "During the process the cotton fibres change to carbon fibres - which react with the boron powder, producing B4C."
After the reaction, the T-shirts change from white to black, which is also cool, but remain lightweight and pliable. But despite the dramatic change in their properties, this type of 'armoured cotton' is not yet ready to replace conventional bulletproof materials, such as Kevlar. Besides, they'd have to make that tee shirt way cooler looking if you want soldiers and police to wear it.
Military forces use plates of boron carbide (B4C) as ceramic inserts for bulletproof clothing, but they can restrict mobility. A breakthrough between researchers in China, Switzerland and the US, found that the durable and porous nature of woven cotton fibres were ideal for creating a nanocomposite. 'We were able to make large quantities of high-strength B4C nanowires using cotton T-shirts as both the template and carbon source,' said the research leader from the University of South Carolina. The cotton template overcame a previous problem of the nanowires clumping together.In the research, squares were cut from 100 per cent cotton T-shirts and soaked in a solution of boron powder and a nickel-based catalyst, before being heated to around 1100ºC for four hours under a flow of argon (to stop the material burning, duh). "Cotton fibres have lots of small pores which can be used to trap the powder," he explained. "During the process the cotton fibres change to carbon fibres - which react with the boron powder, producing B4C."
After the reaction, the T-shirts change from white to black, which is also cool, but remain lightweight and pliable. But despite the dramatic change in their properties, this type of 'armoured cotton' is not yet ready to replace conventional bulletproof materials, such as Kevlar. Besides, they'd have to make that tee shirt way cooler looking if you want soldiers and police to wear it.
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