Jake Mckeegan

Captain America’s shield is an incredible, fascinating, perplexing… fictional item. But how could we make it real?

If you read my latest article (insert link), you’ll know that a rough version of vibranium already exists (at least conceptually). But could you use that vibranium to make Captain America’s shield?

Captain America’s shield has some fantastic properties, including:

1. It’s able to bounce off of walls and other objects
2. It can absorb kinetic energy
3. It is virtually indestructible, it’s 100X stronger than steel alternatives!

But how can we make this shield a reality?

If you haven’t watched this already, you might want to check out *This Video by JLazerVideo* about how he made a bouncing cap shield, but the basic idea is that a ring with a high elastic limit with a simple plastic sheet over it can bounce off of walls and fly in the air.

So, in order to bounce we just need a material with a high elastic limit to form a ring. One possible option for this is Soberthane, a fantastic material that can turn vibrations and kinetic energy into heat. Kind of like vibranium. Anyway, after that we need a thin and light sheet to put over it. For this, I figure that we need something a little bit better than plastic or rubber, so I decided on graphene. It is lightweight, thin, and 200X stronger than steel. Seems pretty good, right?

So, it can bounce off of walls. Good. Now we need it to absorb kinetic energy, while also being 100X stronger than steel (or more). Remember when we talked about soberthane? That’s what will absorb the kinetic energy (and the vibrations as a bonus). Also, the graphene that we talked about earlier will help with the strength. But, it needs to be stronger. It needs to be better.

WHY NOT USE GRAPHENE!!! IS IT HARDER THAN DIAMOND???Enter carbon nanotubes. They’re 100X stronger than steel, and harder than diamonds! They’re also pretty lightweight, so they are perfect for the job. If we can put some multi-layered carbon nanotubes on top of the shield it would be unstoppable!

So, we basically covered every requirement for Captain America’s shield. It can bounce off of walls, absorb kinetic energy, and it’s crazy strong. But what about something… extra? What do we do with all the heat coming from the soberthane absorbing all the kinetic energy and vibrations? What if we make it self heal?!? We could take nitinol (a self-healing nickel-titanium alloy) and use it to make the structure of the Captain America shield. Whenever it gets hit, it’ll self heal! This would add even more to the strength of the shield, plus it would actual self-heal from every impact (with the added bonus that the heat from the soberthane wouldn’t affect you)!

All in all, Captain America’s shield is possible. Without any compromises. All we need is some soberthane, nitinol, carbon nanotubes, and some graphene, and we’re good to go.