  The superior mechanical properties and low density of carbon nanostructures
make them promising ballistic protection materials, stimulating investigations
on their high-strain-rate behavior. Recent experiments and simulations revealed
graphene possesses exceptional energy absorption properties. In this work, we
analyzed through fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations the ballistic
performance of a carbon-based material recently proposed named penta-graphene.
Our results show that the fracture pattern is more spherical (no petals
formation like observed for graphene). The estimated penetration energy for
pentagraphene structures considered here was of 37.69 MJ/Kg, far superior to
graphene (29.8 MJ/Kg) under same conditions. These preliminary results are
suggestive that pentagraphene could be an excellent material for ballistic
applications.
