Post by williamplayer on Jan 15, 2015 13:12:02 GMT
Why Iron man Ditched Iron for Graphene
Jim Kakalios is the Taylor Distinguished Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota and the author of The Physics of Superheroes and The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics, both by Gotham Books.
Graphene is a fascinating material, consisting of a layer of carbon only one atom thick. As such, it's not unusual for scientific journals to make it the subject of research articles. However, last month brought two vastly different publications that made an identical, dramatic point about the mechanical properties of graphene. Science featured an article by scientists and engineers at Rice University and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst that described the results of targeting micro-bullets at graphene. And in Marvel Comics' Superior Ironman #2, someone shot Tony Stark in the face.
In the latest adventures of the armoured Avenger, Tony Stark has undergone a serious personality change thanks to a magic spell cast by the Scarlet Witch and Dr. Doom (seriously, don't ask): he's reverted to the self-centred arrogance that he exhibited before he escaped terrorists by creating an iron suit of armor out of scraps (waaay back in 1963's Tales of Suspense #39, an origin story reprised in the 2008 movie Iron Man). Instead of the familiar red and gold suit of armor, he has taken to wearing gleaming all white armour that looks like something available at the Marvel Universe Apple store (iRon Man?). Significantly, this new Ironman suit has no faceplate, in order to make it easy for the public to see Tony Stark's handsome features. But vanity comes with risks -- and sure enough, an assailant that Stark has driven to despair pulls a pistol and shoots the engineer-playboy in the face, point blank.
Fortunately for Stark (and for us fans, who know that our old, more heroic Tony will eventually return), he is unharmed, and reveals to his assailant that his face is actually protected by a thin, transparent sheet of graphene, invisible and yet stronger than steel. Being only one atom thick, graphene passes 97% of visible light, making it more transparent than most glasses, so we can indeed see his face through this thin, carbon "faceplate."
Marvel
So graphene, owing to its atomic thinness, is indeed invisible -- but could it protect Tony Stark's mug from a bullet? Sure enough, as if the writer of this comic book had seen an advance copy of that same week's issue of Science, Jae-Hwang Lee, Phillip E. Loya, Jun Lou and Edwin L. Thomas of Rice and U. Mass., in "Dynamic Mechanical Behavior of Multilayer Graphene via Supersonic Projectile Penetration," report that thin multi-layers of graphene, no more than a hundred atoms thick, are indeed ten times more "bullet-proof" than steel.
READ FULL ARTICLE: www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-01/15/bulletproof-material-graphene
Jim Kakalios is the Taylor Distinguished Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota and the author of The Physics of Superheroes and The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics, both by Gotham Books.
Graphene is a fascinating material, consisting of a layer of carbon only one atom thick. As such, it's not unusual for scientific journals to make it the subject of research articles. However, last month brought two vastly different publications that made an identical, dramatic point about the mechanical properties of graphene. Science featured an article by scientists and engineers at Rice University and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst that described the results of targeting micro-bullets at graphene. And in Marvel Comics' Superior Ironman #2, someone shot Tony Stark in the face.
In the latest adventures of the armoured Avenger, Tony Stark has undergone a serious personality change thanks to a magic spell cast by the Scarlet Witch and Dr. Doom (seriously, don't ask): he's reverted to the self-centred arrogance that he exhibited before he escaped terrorists by creating an iron suit of armor out of scraps (waaay back in 1963's Tales of Suspense #39, an origin story reprised in the 2008 movie Iron Man). Instead of the familiar red and gold suit of armor, he has taken to wearing gleaming all white armour that looks like something available at the Marvel Universe Apple store (iRon Man?). Significantly, this new Ironman suit has no faceplate, in order to make it easy for the public to see Tony Stark's handsome features. But vanity comes with risks -- and sure enough, an assailant that Stark has driven to despair pulls a pistol and shoots the engineer-playboy in the face, point blank.
Fortunately for Stark (and for us fans, who know that our old, more heroic Tony will eventually return), he is unharmed, and reveals to his assailant that his face is actually protected by a thin, transparent sheet of graphene, invisible and yet stronger than steel. Being only one atom thick, graphene passes 97% of visible light, making it more transparent than most glasses, so we can indeed see his face through this thin, carbon "faceplate."
Marvel
So graphene, owing to its atomic thinness, is indeed invisible -- but could it protect Tony Stark's mug from a bullet? Sure enough, as if the writer of this comic book had seen an advance copy of that same week's issue of Science, Jae-Hwang Lee, Phillip E. Loya, Jun Lou and Edwin L. Thomas of Rice and U. Mass., in "Dynamic Mechanical Behavior of Multilayer Graphene via Supersonic Projectile Penetration," report that thin multi-layers of graphene, no more than a hundred atoms thick, are indeed ten times more "bullet-proof" than steel.
READ FULL ARTICLE: www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-01/15/bulletproof-material-graphene