Ask the people who use body armour and they will tell you how unwieldy and heavy they are due to the thick layer of ceramic material used for absorbing ballistic impact. Researchers have figured out that nanocomposite materials could be woven into fabrics in order to provide greater flexibility and enhanced ballistic protection. Inclusion of spherical nanoparticles of silicon or carbon nanotubes or titanium dioxide in a plastic or epoxy material provides greater ballistic resistance along with improved flexibility. Although this would make the armour better but the process for making armour could introduce impurities which might inhibit the amount of nanoparticles and thus reduce their effectiveness. Dr Vin Dhanak said: We’re using the synchrotron light source, or SRS, and the photoelectron spectrometer at the National Centre for electron spectroscopy and surface analysis, both based at Daresbury. These world-leading instruments let us analyse how the nanoparticles bond with the matrix materials in which they’re embedded. This will help improve the manufacturing process to eliminate impurities and make the materials stronger.
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