New lightweight super material could battle bullets, deflect space debris

University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers have created a nanofiber material that outperforms its widely used counterparts — including steel plates and Kevlar fabric — in protecting against high-speed projectile impacts.

Basically, it’s better than bulletproof.

“Our nanofiber mats exhibit protective properties that far surpass other material systems at much lighter weight,” says Ramathasan Thevamaran, a UW–Madison assistant professor of engineering physics who led the research.

He and his collaborators detailed the advance in a paper published recently in the American Chemistry Society’s journal ACS Nano.