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Edit: This post will be polished up with more information and citations over the coming days.
Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with any company or person producing or selling this fiber. I'm just a chemist who loves sharing and translating these kinds of things for the general public. One of the perks of being a scientist is seeing wonderful things unfold years before they become common knowledge. Read on.
It's not a knife, blade, or steel but it's definitely applicable to the knife world and it should be interesting to the majority of people who frequent this website. To my knowledge the M5 fiber has not appeared in any newspaper or magazine article or on the news and it hasn't been discussed on any other forum on the internet save a passing mention on physicsforum.com. The following is a brief look at the what/how/when of this fiber which I've summarized from the scientific literature (as well as a few internet sources). Journal article citations are provided as endnotes. I'll try my best not to make this too sensational but it will be difficult.
So, what is it? In short, it's the next generation high-performance synthetic polymer- in a much more significant way than you might imagine. It's known by the chemical name poly{2,6-diimidazo[4,5-b:40; 50-e]-pyridinylene-1,4(2,5-dihydroxy)phenylene}, PIPD for short, or simply "M5". It was bound to happen- since the invention of Kevlar, other high-performance polymers have been introduced based on extremely long strands of polyethylene (UHMWPE: Dyneema and Spectra) as well as other polyaramids such as Twaron and Nomex. Kevlar gets much of its strength from strong hydrogen bonds with neighboring parallel polymer chains. M5 does this as well, but unlike Kevlar which bonds along only one axis, M5 forms hydrogen bonds on both the X and Y axis perpendicular to the polymer chain. It's like Kevlar-squared. And that's hardly the beginning.
"The mechanical properties of the new fibre make it competitive with carbon fibre in most applications..." [1]
When we see discussions on this forum regarding "what's the best steel?" it invariably leads to the answer "it depends on the application". High-performance fibers are the same way; there are categories for tensile strength, compression strength, elasticity, chemical and photo stability, adherence to resin (for use in composites). Every fiber has its pros and cons just like every steel; CPM-M4 wouldn't be at home in the ocean as H1 wouldn't be at home in a cutting competition. But here's the sensational part: the M5 polymer is different- so far it appears to match or exceed other high-performance fibers in most every category. To use an analogy- it's like a steel with the edge holding of ZDP-189, the toughness of CPM-M4 and the corrosion resistance of H1 all in one. To use the quote: "The test data indicate that it will be the best fiber ever made." [19]
Take in the following:
-Significantly higher tenacity than Kevlar (40-60%)
-Higher modulus than carbon fiber
-Significant resistance to breakdown by UV radiation
-No degradation on contact with water or acid
-Ability to adhere to resins for use in composites
-Greater fire resistance than Nomex
-Better creep and temperature resistance than polyethylene fibers [9]
History of Development
Chalk it up to fate or the welcoming arms of the U.S. polymer industry but this one was the fish that almost got away. M5 was developed by Dr. Doetze Sikkema and his research team at the Dutch chemical company Akzo Nobel (M5 Patent: US Patent 5674969 issued on 7 October 1997). Unfortunately and maybe regrettably, Akzo Nobel wasn't so interested, and the technology was obtained from Akzo by CEO Gene Vetter of Magellan Systems. Gene then hired Dr. Sikkema, and eventually Dupont became involved:
"In April 2005 DuPont acquired majority holding in Magellan Systems International, developer of the M-5 fiber" [18]
A pilot plant was then built just down the road from Dupont's Kevlar and Nomex plant. Just one small problem though: the same machinery used to process Kevlar couldn't be used for M5- they would break from the stress. See, to really take advantage of M5 (and the polyaramids) you need to do a lot of washing and then apply controlled tension and heat after the initial polymerization. What this does it cause the individual polymer strands to line up and hydrogen-bond with each. The post-processing of these fibers is massively crucial for increasing their performance. As such, it sounds like Dupont had to invent new machinery for the continuous production of M5. With that said, leave this in your mind- back when it was first synthesized and analyzed in an unrefined state, it was already matching the tenacity of Kevlar. Imagine what it will be like when the process is refined...
So the ultimate question: when will it be in our hands? Well, let's just say it's probably going to be available to the military first. Maybe after things get settled we'll be able to buy M5 scales for our M4 folder.
Journal References
1. Sikkema, Doetze J. Design, synthesis and properties of a novel rigid rod polymer, PIPD or M5: high modulus and tenacity fibres with substantial compressive strength. Polymer. 1998, 39, 5981-5986.
2. Jagt, O.C. van der.; Beukers, A. The potential of a new rigid-rod polymer fibre (M5) in advanced composite structures. Polymer. 1999, 40, 1035-1044.
3. Lammers, M.; Klop, E. A.; Northholt, M. G.; Sikkema, D. J. Mechanical properties and structural transitions in the new rigid-rod polymer fibre PIPD (M5) during the manufacturing process. Polymer. 1998, 39, 5999-6005.
4. Cervenka, A. J.; Young, R. J.; Kueseng, K. Micromechanical phenomena during hygrothermal ageing of model composites investigated by Raman spectroscopy. Part II: comparison of the behaviour of PBO and M5 fibres compared with Twaron. Compos. Part A-Appl. S. 2005, 36, 1020-1026.
5. Northolt, M. G.; Sikkema, D. J.; Zegers, H. C.; Klop, E. A. PIPD, A New High-modulus and High-strength Polymer Fibre with Exceptional Fire Protection Properties. Fire Mater. 2002, 26, 169-172.
6. Leal, A. Andres; Deitzel, Joseph, M.; McKnight, Steven H.; Gillespie, Jr., John W. Interfacial behavior of high performance organic fibers. Polymer. 2009, 50, 1228-1235.
7. Leal, A. Andres; Deitzel, Joseph M.; McKnight, Steven H.; Gillespie, Jr., John W. Effect of hydrogen bonding and moisture cycling on the compressive performance of poly-pyridobisimidazole (M5) fiber. Polymer. 2009, 50, 2900-2905.
8. Bourbigot, S.; Flambard, X.; Ferreira, M.; Devaux, E.; Poutch, F. Characterisation and reaction to fire of "M5" rigid rod polymer fibres. J. Mater. Sci. 2003, 38, 2187-2194.
9. Sikkema, Doetze J.; Northolt, Maurits G.; Pourdeyhimi, Behnam. Assessment of New High-Performance Fibers for Advanced Applications. Mrs. Bull. 2003, 579-584.
10. Leal, A. Andres; Deitzel, Joseph M.; Gillespie, Jr., John W. Assessment of compressive properties of high performance organic fibers. Compos. Sci. Technol. 2007, 67, 2786-2794.
11. Hu, Xiao-Dong; Jenkins, Shawn, E.; Min, Byung, G.; Polk, Malcolm B.; Kumar, Satish. Rigid-Rod Polymers: Synthesis, Processing, Simulation, Structure, and Properties. Macromol. Mater. Eng. 2003, 228, 823-843.
12. Leal, A. Andres; Deitzel, Joseph, M.; McKnight, Steven H.; Gillespie, Jr., John W. Spectroscopic Analysis and Kinetics of Intermolecular Hydrogen Bond Formation in Poly-pyridobisimidazole (M5) Fiber. J. Polym. Sci. Pol. Phys. 2009, 47, 1809-1824.
Web-based references
13. http://web.mit.edu/course/3/3.91/www/slides/cunniff.pdf
14. http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=68286
15. http://www.bodyarmornews.com/bodyarmordevelopments/m5-fiber.htm
16. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M5_fiber
17. http://www.m5fiber.com/magellan/
18. http://defense-update.com/products/m/m-5-fiber.htm
19. http://www.richmondcatalyst.com/Issue7_Magellan.asp
20. http://www2.dupont.com/Kevlar/en_US/products/future_fiber.html
Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with any company or person producing or selling this fiber. I'm just a chemist who loves sharing and translating these kinds of things for the general public. One of the perks of being a scientist is seeing wonderful things unfold years before they become common knowledge. Read on.
It's not a knife, blade, or steel but it's definitely applicable to the knife world and it should be interesting to the majority of people who frequent this website. To my knowledge the M5 fiber has not appeared in any newspaper or magazine article or on the news and it hasn't been discussed on any other forum on the internet save a passing mention on physicsforum.com. The following is a brief look at the what/how/when of this fiber which I've summarized from the scientific literature (as well as a few internet sources). Journal article citations are provided as endnotes. I'll try my best not to make this too sensational but it will be difficult.
So, what is it? In short, it's the next generation high-performance synthetic polymer- in a much more significant way than you might imagine. It's known by the chemical name poly{2,6-diimidazo[4,5-b:40; 50-e]-pyridinylene-1,4(2,5-dihydroxy)phenylene}, PIPD for short, or simply "M5". It was bound to happen- since the invention of Kevlar, other high-performance polymers have been introduced based on extremely long strands of polyethylene (UHMWPE: Dyneema and Spectra) as well as other polyaramids such as Twaron and Nomex. Kevlar gets much of its strength from strong hydrogen bonds with neighboring parallel polymer chains. M5 does this as well, but unlike Kevlar which bonds along only one axis, M5 forms hydrogen bonds on both the X and Y axis perpendicular to the polymer chain. It's like Kevlar-squared. And that's hardly the beginning.
"The mechanical properties of the new fibre make it competitive with carbon fibre in most applications..." [1]
When we see discussions on this forum regarding "what's the best steel?" it invariably leads to the answer "it depends on the application". High-performance fibers are the same way; there are categories for tensile strength, compression strength, elasticity, chemical and photo stability, adherence to resin (for use in composites). Every fiber has its pros and cons just like every steel; CPM-M4 wouldn't be at home in the ocean as H1 wouldn't be at home in a cutting competition. But here's the sensational part: the M5 polymer is different- so far it appears to match or exceed other high-performance fibers in most every category. To use an analogy- it's like a steel with the edge holding of ZDP-189, the toughness of CPM-M4 and the corrosion resistance of H1 all in one. To use the quote: "The test data indicate that it will be the best fiber ever made." [19]
Take in the following:
-Significantly higher tenacity than Kevlar (40-60%)
-Higher modulus than carbon fiber
-Significant resistance to breakdown by UV radiation
-No degradation on contact with water or acid
-Ability to adhere to resins for use in composites
-Greater fire resistance than Nomex
-Better creep and temperature resistance than polyethylene fibers [9]
History of Development
Chalk it up to fate or the welcoming arms of the U.S. polymer industry but this one was the fish that almost got away. M5 was developed by Dr. Doetze Sikkema and his research team at the Dutch chemical company Akzo Nobel (M5 Patent: US Patent 5674969 issued on 7 October 1997). Unfortunately and maybe regrettably, Akzo Nobel wasn't so interested, and the technology was obtained from Akzo by CEO Gene Vetter of Magellan Systems. Gene then hired Dr. Sikkema, and eventually Dupont became involved:
"In April 2005 DuPont acquired majority holding in Magellan Systems International, developer of the M-5 fiber" [18]
A pilot plant was then built just down the road from Dupont's Kevlar and Nomex plant. Just one small problem though: the same machinery used to process Kevlar couldn't be used for M5- they would break from the stress. See, to really take advantage of M5 (and the polyaramids) you need to do a lot of washing and then apply controlled tension and heat after the initial polymerization. What this does it cause the individual polymer strands to line up and hydrogen-bond with each. The post-processing of these fibers is massively crucial for increasing their performance. As such, it sounds like Dupont had to invent new machinery for the continuous production of M5. With that said, leave this in your mind- back when it was first synthesized and analyzed in an unrefined state, it was already matching the tenacity of Kevlar. Imagine what it will be like when the process is refined...
So the ultimate question: when will it be in our hands? Well, let's just say it's probably going to be available to the military first. Maybe after things get settled we'll be able to buy M5 scales for our M4 folder.
Journal References
1. Sikkema, Doetze J. Design, synthesis and properties of a novel rigid rod polymer, PIPD or M5: high modulus and tenacity fibres with substantial compressive strength. Polymer. 1998, 39, 5981-5986.
2. Jagt, O.C. van der.; Beukers, A. The potential of a new rigid-rod polymer fibre (M5) in advanced composite structures. Polymer. 1999, 40, 1035-1044.
3. Lammers, M.; Klop, E. A.; Northholt, M. G.; Sikkema, D. J. Mechanical properties and structural transitions in the new rigid-rod polymer fibre PIPD (M5) during the manufacturing process. Polymer. 1998, 39, 5999-6005.
4. Cervenka, A. J.; Young, R. J.; Kueseng, K. Micromechanical phenomena during hygrothermal ageing of model composites investigated by Raman spectroscopy. Part II: comparison of the behaviour of PBO and M5 fibres compared with Twaron. Compos. Part A-Appl. S. 2005, 36, 1020-1026.
5. Northolt, M. G.; Sikkema, D. J.; Zegers, H. C.; Klop, E. A. PIPD, A New High-modulus and High-strength Polymer Fibre with Exceptional Fire Protection Properties. Fire Mater. 2002, 26, 169-172.
6. Leal, A. Andres; Deitzel, Joseph, M.; McKnight, Steven H.; Gillespie, Jr., John W. Interfacial behavior of high performance organic fibers. Polymer. 2009, 50, 1228-1235.
7. Leal, A. Andres; Deitzel, Joseph M.; McKnight, Steven H.; Gillespie, Jr., John W. Effect of hydrogen bonding and moisture cycling on the compressive performance of poly-pyridobisimidazole (M5) fiber. Polymer. 2009, 50, 2900-2905.
8. Bourbigot, S.; Flambard, X.; Ferreira, M.; Devaux, E.; Poutch, F. Characterisation and reaction to fire of "M5" rigid rod polymer fibres. J. Mater. Sci. 2003, 38, 2187-2194.
9. Sikkema, Doetze J.; Northolt, Maurits G.; Pourdeyhimi, Behnam. Assessment of New High-Performance Fibers for Advanced Applications. Mrs. Bull. 2003, 579-584.
10. Leal, A. Andres; Deitzel, Joseph M.; Gillespie, Jr., John W. Assessment of compressive properties of high performance organic fibers. Compos. Sci. Technol. 2007, 67, 2786-2794.
11. Hu, Xiao-Dong; Jenkins, Shawn, E.; Min, Byung, G.; Polk, Malcolm B.; Kumar, Satish. Rigid-Rod Polymers: Synthesis, Processing, Simulation, Structure, and Properties. Macromol. Mater. Eng. 2003, 228, 823-843.
12. Leal, A. Andres; Deitzel, Joseph, M.; McKnight, Steven H.; Gillespie, Jr., John W. Spectroscopic Analysis and Kinetics of Intermolecular Hydrogen Bond Formation in Poly-pyridobisimidazole (M5) Fiber. J. Polym. Sci. Pol. Phys. 2009, 47, 1809-1824.
Web-based references
13. http://web.mit.edu/course/3/3.91/www/slides/cunniff.pdf
14. http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=68286
15. http://www.bodyarmornews.com/bodyarmordevelopments/m5-fiber.htm
16. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M5_fiber
17. http://www.m5fiber.com/magellan/
18. http://defense-update.com/products/m/m-5-fiber.htm
19. http://www.richmondcatalyst.com/Issue7_Magellan.asp
20. http://www2.dupont.com/Kevlar/en_US/products/future_fiber.html
