In this study, the ballistic performance of armors composed of a polyurea elastomer/Kevlar fabric composite and a shear thickening fluid (STF) structure was investigated. The polyurea used was a reaction product of aromatic diphenylmethane isocyanate (A agent) and amine-terminated polyether resin (B agent). The A and B agents were diluted, mixed and brushed onto Kevlar fabric. After the reaction of A and B agents was complete, the polyurea/Kevlar composite was formed. STF structure was prepared through pouring the STF into a honeycomb paper panel. The ballistic tests were conducted with reference to NIJ 0101.06 Ballistic Test Specification Class II and Class IIIA, using 9 mm FMJ and 44 magnum bullets. The ballistic test results reveal that polyurea/Kevlar fabric composites offer better impact resistance than conventional Kevlar fabrics and a 2 mm STF structure could replace approximately 10 layers of Kevlar in a ballistic resistant layer. Our results also showed that a high-strength composite laminate using the best polyurea/Kevlar plates combined with the STF structure was more than 17% lighter and thinner than the conventional Kevlar laminate, indicating that the high-strength protective material developed in this study is superior to the traditional protective materials.

The mechanisms responsible for the transparency of Ni/Au and Ni/Au/ZnO on p-GaN has been investigated. It was found that the optical transmission of Ni/Au contacts is dominated by the film thickness and morphology. A change in film thickness, induced by thermal annealing, results in a more transparent contact material. In addition a ZnO film was used as an antireflection layer on top of a Ni/Au contact. The Ni/Au/ZnO film was found to have an increased light transmission of 15% compared with an annealed Ni/Au contact. The maximum optical transmission measured through the Ni/Au/ZnO contact was 90%.

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Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with uniform diameters (10−20 nm) and high densities per unit area were synthesized in a 5−10 s combustion process using a mixture of butane and air at 880 °C. The growth mechanism of MWCNTs was studied via time-sequence experiments to reveal that the catalyst nanoparticles were formed on a 3 nm thick Ni-coated wafer after 3 s in the flame. Short and uniform MWCNTs were synthesized using a 5 s process, whereas MWCNTs with a maximum density and length were obtained using a 10 s process. It is believed that both the synthesis temperature and the combustion products, such as CO, H2O, C n H m (n = 1 or 2), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, play an important role in the growth of the MWCNTs. Furthermore, the field emission properties of the combustion-generated carbon nanotube (CNT) films were studied, and an emission current density of 0.18 mA/cm2 at 7 V/μm was obtained. These results suggested that this fabrication method provided rapid and direct growth of field-emission CNTs on a desired substrate.

A field-emission light source with high luminance, excellent luminance uniformity, and tunable luminance characteristics with a novel lateral-gate structure is demonstrated. The lateral-gate triode structure comprises SiC nanowire emitters on a Ag cathode electrode and a pair of Ag gate electrodes placed laterally on both sides of the cathode. The simple and cost-effective screen printing technique is employed to pattern the lateral-gates and cathode structure on soda lime glass. The area coverage of the screen-printed cathode and gates on the glass substrate (area: 6 × 8 cm2) is in the range of 2.04% – 4.74% depending on the set of cathode-gate electrodes on the substrate. The lateral-gate structure with its small area coverage exhibits a two-dimensional luminance pattern with high brightness and good luminance uniformity. A maximum luminance of 10952 cd/cm2 and a luminance uniformity of >90% can be achieved with a gate voltage of 500 V and an anode voltage of 4000 V, with an anode current of 1.44 mA and current leakage to the gate from the cathode of about 10%.