ApNano

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ApNano Materials is a company that has developed a number of consumer products based on the manipulation of nanotechnology. Dr. Menachem Genut, President and CEO of ApNano Materials. The technological developments that the company produces come primarily from contracted research at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel. Among the company's recent developments are NanoLub and nanocomposite body armor materials.

NanoLub is a lubricant based on nano-spheres and nanotubes of inorganic compounds that were discovered at the Weizmann Institute. NanoLub particles have a unique structure of nested spheres that lubricate by a special mechanism that can be considered as the rolling of millions of miniature ball bearings, thus greatly reducing friction and wear (see tribology).

In 2005 ApNano developed a material for body armor that is always rigid, and announced[1] that this nanocomposite based on Tungsten Disulfide was able to withstand shocks generated by a steel projectile traveling at velocities of up to 1.5 km/second. The material was also reportedly able to withstand shock pressures generated by the impacts of up to 250 tons per square centimeter. During the tests, the material proved to be so strong that after the impact the samples remained essentially unmarred. Additionally, a recent study in France tested the material under isostatic pressure and found it to be stable up to at least 350 tons/cm².