Make srikumar as your homepage

< >

   
 
Please check "WHAT IS NEW?"  to see new pages we are adding. Enjoy

CAD Free stuff | NRI | Jobs | Home pages Education | Movies | Games | Music | Indian Music | A  to Z topics | Science| Job Posting | What is New? |

 Engineering| Alumni | Health | Sports |Tourism |Computers | Business | Oman 123| 3D perspectives | Chat Free downloads |Shopping | Family | Comments
Articles| Advertising | Cooking | Humour | Interior Design| Marketing |Toastmasters
 

 
Home
Art of Living
CAD
Cooking
Education
Engineering
Freestuff
Feng Shui
 
< >
 
Festivals
Games
Health
Question papers
Humour
House plans
Jobs
Interior Design
 
Jokes
Kids
Music
Movies
NRI
Oman123
 

Contact:
L.Srikumar Pai
B.Sc( Engg.), MIE, MIWWA, MICI
Civil Engineer & CAD Specialist
Web master

See my 3d perspectives using AutoCAD & 3DS Max.
3D Album
New

 

How an ordinary T-shirt could become body armour

Main Article page | Science articles Health page| Disease articles | Links


 

Washington, Apr 2 (ANI): An ordinary cotton T-shirt can be converted into body armour, thanks to scientists from South Carolina, Switzerland and China.

They combined the carbon in the cotton with boron to create a tough, lightweight fabric of boron carbide, the same material used to protect tanks.

Available at Wal-Mart, the treated T-shirt would be not only bulletproof, but also resistant to ultraviolet light from the sun and life-threatening neutrons emitted by decaying radioactive materials.

The research could lead to more comfortable body armour for soldiers and police.

It could even be used to produce lightweight, fuel-efficient cars and aircraft.

"The current boron carbide armour is strong, but its not flexible and its very heavy. We tried to solve this problem but with a different approach. In our approach, we used cotton T-shirts," said Xiaodong Li, a scientist at the University of South Carolina.

The trick for the scientists was combining dissolved boron with the carbon fibers inside the cotton fibers to form boron carbide.

The feat began with a 5-dollar package of plain, white T-shirts purchased at Wal-Mart, which the scientists cut into thin strips.

They dipped those white cotton strips into a black solution of boron.

After an hour, the strips were removed from the solution and baked in at oven at more than 1,000 degrees Celsius (1832 degrees Fahrenheit) for an hour.

The heat stripped away anything that wasn't carbon or boron, and combined these two elements into boron carbide.

The resulting fabric is very different than the original materials that at the start of the process-it's lighter, stronger, tougher and stiffer than the original cotton, but it can still be bent, unlike normal boron carbide armour plates.

Li said that the physical properties of the new fabric are still being tested, but "from our preliminary results we can say the test have been very, very promising."

"We expect that the nanowires can capture a bullet," Discovery News quoted Li as saying.

The former T-shirt can also block other hazards as well, such as cancer-causing ultraviolet light from the sun and even life-threatening neutrons emitted by decaying radioactive materials, said Li.

Covering cars or aircraft with cotton-based boron carbide, instead of the metal used today, would make these vehicles significantly lighter and more fuel-efficient.

The study has been published in the journal Advanced Materials. (ANI)

 

 
Contact
Personality
Reiki
Real Estate 
Stories
TV
Toastmaster 
Vaastushastra
What is New?
 
< >
 
Free MP3
Results
AutoCAD Blocks
3D Max textures
Printer Drivers
Entrance Test
IAS Topper
 
Public Speaking
Shopping
Translation
Tourism
Useful articles
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
We have provided links for the public use and not responsible for the contents of any site.

About us | Submit your site |Suggestions | A to Z topics |Advertising | Auctions | Alumni | Arts | Astrology | Animals | BusinessCooking CAD| Chat | Computers | Disabled People
Environment | Education | Engineering | Family | Festivals | Freebies | Fun | Games | Health | India | Jobs | Jokes |Kerala | Kids | NRI News |   Movies | Music | Medicine 
| Photography | Religion | Reference | Science | Shopping | Sports | Tenders | Tourism | Vaastu shastra | Women | World | Zoo
Copyright www.srikumar.com 2009-2010