Abstract

Recently, the demand has increased for protective clothing materials capable of shielding the wearer from bullets, fragment bullets, knives, and swords. It is therefore necessary to develop light and soft protective clothing materials with excellent wearability and mobility. To this end, research is being conducted on hybrid design methods for various highly functional materials, such as carbon nanotube (CNT) sheets, which are well known for their low weight and excellent strength. In this study, a hybrid protective material using CNT sheets was developed and its performance was evaluated. The material design incorporated a bonding method that used a binder for interlayer combination between the CNT sheets. Four types of binders were selected according to their characteristics and impregnated within CNT sheets, followed by further combination with aramid fabric to produce the hybrid protective material. After applying the binder, the tensile strength increased significantly, especially with the phenoxy binder, which has rigid characteristics. However, as the molecular weight of the phenoxy binder increased, the adhesive force and strength decreased. On the other hand, when a 25% lightweight-design and high-molecular-weight phenoxy binder were applied, the backface signature (BFS) decreased by 6.2 mm. When the CNT sheet was placed in the middle of the aramid fabric, the BFS was the lowest. In a stab resistance test, the penetration depth was the largest when the CNT sheet was in the middle layer. As the binder was applied, the stab resistance improvement against the P1 blade was most effective.

Keywords: CNT sheet;binder;hybrid protective materials;high-velocity impact test;stab resistance test