• HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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    5 hours ago

    I don’t know if this will actually pan out the way that they imply in the title; armor needs to have a lot of different characteristics in order to be practical. As in, resistance to heat and cold, resistance to acids, alkalines, petroleum distillates, salts, UV, and oxygen, and also resist deformation. Multiple materials have displays significant promise for armor, but had a very short lifespan in real-word conditions. For instance, there was a material trademarked as Zylon that was supposed to be better than Kevlar, and it was used extensively by Second Chance (a body armor company); several cops were killed when their armor failed, and the armor failed because of exposure to sweat and ambient heat.

    Yeah, this is a super cool development, but remember that everything that comes out at this stage is hype.

    • Soleos@lemmy.world
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      7 minutes ago

      Yes… that’s why they use the word “could”. This is how research works and what reasonable science reporting looks like. There were no promises or wild claims made in the article.

      • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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        2 hours ago

        It really depends on whether it can be made to meet all the other criteria required for armor. I think that it’s too early to make any good predictions.

    • JustinA
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      14 hours ago

      it’s very lightweight though, so it could reduce plastic usage by mass, by reinforcing plastic/other materials.

      There’s also no reason why polymers need to be made out of oil: See PLA, cellophane, viscose, etc.

    • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 hours ago

      Whether or not it’s plastic isn’t as big an issue as whether or not it’s biodegradable within a realistic timeframe.

      • JustinA
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        8 hours ago

        everything is degradable with enough heat

    • BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one
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      15 hours ago

      I mean, we have tried to completely stop, or at least slow, the refinement of crude oil, because there’s so much fucking byproduct that is made from it and is subsequently recycled and converted into plastic. What else can we do with all that fucked up petroleum byproduct besides make it all into some form of usable plastic?

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    China, please respect this secret. Its made up with grapheme threads. Its impossible to understand exactly so we made a little picture with the molecules and such so you can’t copy it.