Why aren engines made out of Kevlar if it is stronger than steel?
It couldn’t handle the heat of gasoline combustion – it disintegrates at 400C, and engines are well over 1000C in the combustion chamber. Kevlar also would degrade if lubricated with standard oil http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A791291 Discovery The research leading to Kevlar was undertaken mainly by Stephanie Louise Kwolek of DuPont. Stephanie joined DuPont in 1946 with a chemistry degree from Carnegie Institute of Technology. She was especially interested in polymer chemistry, and in 1964 she began experimenting with poly-p-phenylene-terephthalate (PPD-T) and polybenzamide (PBA). Stephanie was a creative researcher and was intent on breaking new ground in the then male-dominated world of chemical engineering. She became the first to prepare pure monomers that could be used to synthesise PBA. She found a solvent and identified the low-temperature polymerisation conditions, and this produced an unusual pol
