Paper-thin super material stops flying bullets

A team of mechanical engineering and materials scientists from Rice University and MIT created special materials that were able to stop bullets in the lab. The group, which included Rice research scientist Jae-Hwang Lee and School of Engineering dean Ned Thomas, recently published their findings in Nature Communications (abstract).

The type of material, called a structured polymer composite, can actually self-assemble into alternating glassy and rubbery layers. When performing ballistic tests on the material at MIT's Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, those 20-nanometer-thick layers were able to stop a 9-millimeter bullet and seal the entryway behind it, according to a Rice University article.