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Chemists have invented a new cloth that could be the future of body armour — chainmail . But this is n’t the Middle Ages all over again ; the new A-one - unassailable material is made of molecules that are mesh on a nanoscale , scientist say .
Researchers fused lines of molecule like links in a range of mountains to create sheet of the world ’s first two - dimensional mechanically interlocked material ( 2D MIM ) , which has length and width . The material contains 100 trillion chemical bonds per square centimeter ( around 650 trillion per square inch ) , which is the high density of mechanically skillful bonds ever achieved , the researchers report in the subject , published Jan. 16 in the journalScience .
An illustration of the new two-dimensional mechanically interlocked polymers.
The sketch authors tot a little amount of the material to a tough plastic material called Ultem — also made from molecule chain . Ultem is already incredibly strong but became even stronger with the 2D MIM . The research , which could finally be used in organic structure armor , was part fund by the government ’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency .
" It ’s similar to chainmail in that it can not easy rip because each of the mechanically skillful bond certificate has a bit of exemption to slide around , " study co - authorWilliam Dichtel , a chemistry professor at Northwestern University in Illinois , articulate in astatement . " If you pull it , it can dissipate the applied force in multiple management . And if you need to rive it asunder , you would have to break it in many , many unlike places . "
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The 2D MIM material is made of interlockedpolymers , which are prospicient range of mountains of small particle , squall monomers . The team took lines of XTC - shaped monomer and coiffe them into watch glass structure that react together so that the ends of the monomer attachment with the oddment of other monomer , according to the statement .
Each monomer ’s X - shape left gaps in which researchers could waver additional lines of these molecular edifice pulley block , creating layers of interlocked 2D polymers within the quartz . The scientists then dissolve the crystal to retrieve the interlocked polymer .
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" After the polymer is formed , there ’s not a whole lot holding the structure together , " Dichtel said . " So , when we put it in solvent , the crystal dissolve , but each 2D layer holds together . We can control those individual sheet . "
To test their new stuff , the researchers made composite materials out of 97.5 % Ultem fiber and 2.5 % 2D MIM . The small amount of interlocked 2D polymer increase the force needed to deform Ultem fibers by 45 % and the amount of stress the Ultem could withstand by 22 % , fit in to the subject area .
" We have a lot more analytic thinking to do , but we can order that it improves the strength of these composite materials , " Dichtel say . " Almost every property we have measured has been olympian in some way . "
