atek3
Member
Remember Zylon, the superfiber that degraded under light, heat, and moisture? Another company Magellan Systems bought Azko Nobel's patent on M5 another next generation superfiber that is stronger than Zylon, Kevlar, and spectra, but doesn't have the degradation liabilities of Zylon. The US government is beating down their door to get industrial production online to make next-gen armor out of the stuff. A majority interest of Magellan was bought by DuPont, a huge player in the synthetic fiber scene.
What makes the fiber so cool is tough to explain, I'll try any way. M5 is a polymer meaning it is a chain made up of links each with the above structure. What gives this material unparalleled strength is the fact that when you lay the polymer chains close to each other they 'hydrogen bond' which is a normally a relatively weak interaction however when you multiply the hydrogen bonding over the millions of subunit long chains you get incredible macroscopic strength. Now if the bonding was only in one plane, as the above picture suggests you'd form molecular sheets that could slide relative to each other, not the best property for a "super fiber" (graphite has this property however, making it a great lubricant). M5 isn't llike that however. In the picture that stucture looks flat, but in reality those two groups, the large group on the left, and the smaller group on the right are at a 90 degree angle relative to each other. Meaning that the 'bisimidazolopyridine' (the left part) forms bonds in the x-direction and the 'dihydroxyphenyl' (the right part) forms bonds in the y-direction. (the Z-direction co-linear with the polymer). This 3-D matrix of hydrogen bonds gives it a 'honeycomb' like structure.
What does this all mean for gun nuts? A lighter stronger fiber for ballistic armor than ever before. (too bad if the vests are ever released to civilians they'll probably cost a fortune.)
atek3
What makes the fiber so cool is tough to explain, I'll try any way. M5 is a polymer meaning it is a chain made up of links each with the above structure. What gives this material unparalleled strength is the fact that when you lay the polymer chains close to each other they 'hydrogen bond' which is a normally a relatively weak interaction however when you multiply the hydrogen bonding over the millions of subunit long chains you get incredible macroscopic strength. Now if the bonding was only in one plane, as the above picture suggests you'd form molecular sheets that could slide relative to each other, not the best property for a "super fiber" (graphite has this property however, making it a great lubricant). M5 isn't llike that however. In the picture that stucture looks flat, but in reality those two groups, the large group on the left, and the smaller group on the right are at a 90 degree angle relative to each other. Meaning that the 'bisimidazolopyridine' (the left part) forms bonds in the x-direction and the 'dihydroxyphenyl' (the right part) forms bonds in the y-direction. (the Z-direction co-linear with the polymer). This 3-D matrix of hydrogen bonds gives it a 'honeycomb' like structure.
What does this all mean for gun nuts? A lighter stronger fiber for ballistic armor than ever before. (too bad if the vests are ever released to civilians they'll probably cost a fortune.)
atek3
