A nanofiber material that reportedly outperforms steel plates and Kevlar against high-speed projectiles has been developed by engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

To create the lightweight nanofiber mats, which can reportedly withstand the impact of tiny projectiles that move faster than the speed of sound, the team combined Kevlar nanofibers with multi-walled carbon nanotubes.

The incorporation of Kevlar nanofibers into carbon nanotube mats produced strong hydrogen bonds between the fibers, according to the researchers.

“The hydrogen bond is a dynamic bond, which means it can continuously break and re-form again, allowing it to dissipate a high amount of energy through this dynamic process,” the researchers said. “In addition, hydrogen bonds provide more stiffness to that interaction, which strengthens and stiffens the nanofiber mat. When we modified the interfacial interactions in our mats by adding Kevlar nanofibers, we were able to achieve nearly 100% improvement in energy dissipation performance at certain supersonic impact velocities.”

To test the material, the team of engineers used a laser-induced microprojectile impact testing system to shoot micro-bullets into samples of the material

The engineers suggest that the combination of Kevlar nanofibers and carbon nanotube could be used to manufacture lightweight armor materials for bulletproof vests or in the making of shields for surrounding spacecraft to protect them from space junk collisions.

The engineering team plans to patent their material and have detailed their research in the article, Extreme Dynamic Performance of Nanofiber Mats under Supersonic Impacts Mediated by Interfacial Hydrogen Bonds, which appears in the journal ACS Nano.