Patent attributes
The present invention provides new impact protection materials and the method of making the same. More specifically, the impact protection materials are polymer-based shear-thickening composite comprising a non-shear-thickening polymer matrix material and one or more shear-thickening materials. Preferably, the non-shear-thickening polymer matrix material is in an amount from approximately 5 weight percent to approximately 90 weight percent with the balance being one or more shear-thickening materials. The first type of the one or more shear-thickening materials is sol-gel based shear-thickening material in which small inorganic particles are connected in a gel network; the second type is polymer-based shear-thickening material in which polymer chains form network. Compared to the existing shear-thickening materials, the present shear-thickening materials have different molecular structure and formulation and possess properties of good impact protection and good stability.
