A novel approach has been introduced in making flexible armor composites. Armor composites are usually made by reinforcing Kevlar fabric into the mixture of a polymer and nanoscale particles. The current procedure deviates from the traditional shear thickening fluid (STF) route and instead uses silane (amino-propyl-trimethoxy silane) as the base polymer. In addition, a cross-linking fixative such as Glutaraldehyde (Gluta) is added to the polymer to create bridges between distant pairs of amine groups present in Kevlar and silated nanoparticles. Water, silane, nanoparticles and Gluta are mixed using a homogenizer and an ultra-sonochemical technique. Subsequently, the admixture is impregnated with Kevlar - bypassing the heating and evaporating processes involved with STF. The resulting composites have shown remarkable improvement in spike resistance; at least one order higher than that of STF/Kevlar composites. The source of improvement has been traced to the formation of secondary amine C-N stretch due to the presence of Gluta. / by Vincent Lambert. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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