Futuristic lobster-inspired body armors to be flexible, stretchy

Inspired from lobsters, researchers have come across a new technique to create a body armor, which would not only be hard, but also flexible, soft and stretchy.

A team of scientists from MIT have figured out a way to make flexible, tough, soft, and stretchy body armor inspired from the flexible translucent membrane found on the underside of lobster’s tail.

The researchers determined that the membrane is in fact a hydrogel, composing of 90% water, and 10% of chitin – a fibrous material usually found in shells and exoskeletons. The lobster’s membrane is also the world’s toughest natural hydrogel and roughly even matches the strength of industrial rubber composites, reported New Atlas.

Also, the team discovered that the membrane becomes stiffer and tougher when stretched beyond around twice its relaxed length, in comparison to other tough hydrogels that become softer when stretched. It could also still be stretched just as far without breaking even when a scalpel was used to cut half-way through the thickness of the membrane, which won’t be possible with other materials.

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“We think this work could motivate flexible armor design,” researcher Ming Guo told MIT News. “If you could make armor out of these types of materials, you could freely move your joints, and it would make you feel more comfortable.”

The researchers found that the membrane’s unique structure includes tens of thousands of layers. The fibers within those layers help the material dissipate energy when it’s under stress, hence making it ‘damage tolerant’.

“The knowledge learned from the soft membrane of natural lobsters sheds light on designing synthetic soft, yet strong and tough materials for reliable usage under extreme mechanical conditions, including a flexible armor that can provide full-body protection without sacrificing limb mobility,” the researchers wrote in the study published in the journal Acta Materialia.

The researchers believe that such a material designed to replicate the strength and flexibility of lobster membranes could also be used in soft robotics and tissue engineering and also to cover joints like elbows and knees. Also, it can offer solution to the problem that the more mobility an armor offers, the less it protects the wearer’s body, wrote The Washington Post.