theoritically could one make armour out of carbon nanotubes, if so would it be effective?

Answer 1

Or you can go with regular carbon fibre/composite materials. Which they do now for bullet proof vest. And cost less than nanotubes. Nanotubes are only made in small quantities now. But if they can make enough to weave them into armor they'll be tough to get through. I'm sure such thing will stop any IED blasts.

Answer 2

It would matter on what the malleability of the overall suit would be. From what I remember about carbon nanotubes was that they're a cylindrical chicken wire like structure which is very strong. If your thinking of the strongest possible suit then you would want to make it out of aggregated diamond nanorods instead. But there is still the matter of stress points where the rods are weaved together. The strength of an armor is important but the ability to displace the incoming force is more important.

Answer 3

Yes. You could and it would. To be effective, armour needs to resist penetration and it needs to spread the high pressure concentrated in a small area of a stab with a knife, or the impact of a bullet over a larger area, so the wearer gets nothing worse than a bruise. Body armour made by weaving carbon nanotubes like fabric, or alternatively consisting of several layers of carbon atoms joined together like chicken netting would be lighter and stronger than kevlar.

Answer 4

Yes and No!
Problem here is effective against what?
It would be and has all the characteristics of a very strong man-made material, though there are a host of natural biological alternatives, this would be far more lighter.

Yes it will be very strong and perhaps impenetrable by say a knife, so we could wear it as a vest on those nites-out. However, any impact advantages are limited due to the close proximity to the body.

Answer 5

Yes