Hybridizing Shear-Stiffening Gel and Chemically-Strengthened Ultrathin Glass Sheets for Flexible Impact-Resistant Armor

Xuchao Wang, Zijing Zhang, Zhihua Liang, Haimin Yao

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Traditional anti-impact armors and shields are normally made of stiff and hard materials and therefore deficient in flexibility. This greatly limits their applications in protecting objects with complex geometries or significant deformability. Flexible armors can be developed with the application of hard platelets and soft materials, but the lower rigidity of the flexible armors renders them incapable of providing sufficient resistance against impact attacks. To address the inherent conflict between flexibility and impact resistance in traditional armors, here, a composite is developed by hybridizing a shear-stiffening gel as the matrix and chemically-strengthened ultrathin glass sheets (CSGS) as the reinforcement. The resulting laminate, termed PCCL, exhibits both high flexibility and high impact resistance. Specifically, at low strain rates, the high ductility of the gel combined with the high flexural strength of the CSGS enables the PCCL to undergo considerable deformation; at high strain rates, on the other hand, the shear stiffening behavior of the gel matrix endows the PCCL with excellent impact resistance manifested by its high performance in energy absorption and high rigidity. With the combination of high flexibility and high impact resistance, the PCCL is demonstrated to be an ideal armor for protecting curved vulnerable objects from impact attacks.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2403379
JournalAdvanced Science
Volume11
Issue number33
Early online date29 Jun 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Sept 2024

Keywords

  • chemical strengthening
  • energy absorption
  • protective armor
  • shear stiffening

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Medicine (miscellaneous)
  • General Chemical Engineering
  • General Materials Science
  • Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (miscellaneous)
  • General Engineering
  • General Physics and Astronomy

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