Wood as hard as steel can stop bullets

Phuong Hoa DNUM_AJZACZCABI 15:24

Materials researchers have developed a simple process that turns a sheet of wood into a super-dense material as hard as steel that can stop bullets.

The new inexpensive technique, developed by a team at the University of Maryland and described in a paper published in the journal Nature, involves boiling a block of wood in a solution of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulphite to remove the compounds that give it hardness. The block is then immediately compressed at high pressure and heated to 100 degrees Celsius, the International Business Times reported yesterday.

Researchers create a new super-hard wood material. Photo: UniversityMaryland.

The finished product is 20% smaller, three times denser, and has some impressive properties, but is 20 times harder, 50 times more compressive, and 11.5 times more stretchable than the original wood. These properties make it as hard as steel but lighter than steel. Not only is it much more impact resistant, it is also moisture resistant and can be molded into any shape during compression.

Densified wood can even stop bullets. In the study, researchers fired stainless steel bullets from an air gun, which easily punctured a regular wooden board but failed to penetrate laminated wood of the same thickness.

The team says the technique could create a new class of strong, ultra-light wood materials that could be used to replace steel in construction, help manufacture vehicles or even make bulletproof panels.

According to vnexpress.net
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Wood as hard as steel can stop bullets
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