The plastic is touted to be as strong as steel and built in the same way as a mother-of-pearl thereby showing similar strength. This material is of 300 layers built with nanosheets of clay and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) that acts to envelop the nanoparticle. Its probable practical uses are light but strong armors for soldiers or police officers or as a material for biomedical sensors and unmanned aircrafts.

The composite plastic was built by an earlier developed machine that builds materials one nanoscale layer after another. This is very important since it is difficult to carry the strength of nanostructures at the human scale. Scientists have found it very problematic to transfer the strength of individual nanosheets or nanotubes to the entire material if what is being built is held only by human arms and hands.