The star superhard material in bulletproof armor - boron carbide

Due to its high specific rigidity, high specific strength and chemical inertness in complex environment, as well as its low density, high hardness and high compressive strength compared with metal materials, ceramic materials have been widely used in armored system, and have been widely used in armored vehicles, aircraft and other equipment.

Metal materials can through plastic deformation to absorb the energy of the warhead, and ceramic as a brittle material, under the effect of warhead larger impact, the ceramic material mainly through the broken procedure absorb energy at present, the commonly used armor ceramic materials mainly for boron carbide (B4C) silicon carbide and aluminum oxide relative to the other two material, boron carbide has a lower density, higher hardness, higher elastic modulus.

Bulletproof vests can be made more impact-resistant by adding silicon to boron carbide, a material commonly used to make bulletproof vests.