Scientists at City University of New York’s Advanced Science Research Center have successfully combined two layers of graphene to create a material so strong, it could stop bullets, and the discovery could have implications for the military and law enforcement. The materials is ultra-thin, as well as soft and light, and yet when it is struck by a fast-moving object like a bullet, it becomes hard as a diamond.

It’s a material called daimene, and it is create by combining two sheets of graphine – no more, no less. In findings published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, they describe creating this material via simulation before combining the layers in the lab and using an atomic force microscope to subject them to pressure.

The result was incredible, as the material exhibited “diamond-like properties,” researchers said. The graphene sheets were combined at room temperature, and the findings suggest that the military could be changed forever if it were applied as a protective material for soldiers.

“This is the thinnest film with the stiffness and hardness of diamond ever created,” said Elisa Riedo, professor of physics at the ASRC and the project’s lead researcher. “Previously, when we tested graphite or a single atomic layer of graphene, we would apply pressure and feel a very soft film. But when the graphite film was exactly two-layers thick, all of a sudden we realized that the material under pressure was becoming extremely hard and as stiff, or stiffer, than bulk diamond.”