Composite materials nanocomposites

There is currently considerable interest in processing polymeric composite materials filled with nanosized rigid particles. This class of material called "nanocomposites" describes two-phase materials where one of the phases has at least one dimension lower than 100 nm [13]. Because the building blocks of nanocomposites are of nanoscale, they have an enormous interface area. Due to this there are a lot of interfaces between two intermixed phases compared to usual microcomposites. In addition to this, the mean distance between the particles is also smaller due to their small size which favors filler-filler interactions [14]. Nanomaterials not only include metallic, bimetallic and metal oxide but also polymeric nanoparticles as well as advanced materials like carbon nanotubes and dendrimers. However considering environmetal hazards, research has been focused on various means which form the basis of green nanotechnology. 

Recent demands for polymeric materials request them to be multifunctional and high performance. Therefore, the research and development of composite materials have become more important because single-polymeric materials can never satisfy such requests. Especially, nanocomposite materials where nanoscale fillers are incorporated with polymeric materials draw much more attention, which accelerates the development of evaluation techniques that have nanometer-scale resolution." To date, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has been widely used for this purpose, while the technique never catches mechanical information of such materials in general. The realization of much-higher-performance materials requires the evaluation technique that enables us to investigate morphological and mechanical properties at the same time. AFM must be an appropriate candidate because it has almost comparable resolution with TEM. Furthermore, mechanical properties can be readily obtained by AFM due to the fact that the sharp probe tip attached to soft cantilever directly touches the surface of materials in question. Therefore, many of polymer researchers have started to use this novel technique." In this section, we introduce the results using the method described in Section 21.3.3 on CB-reinforced NR. 

Hybrid polymer silica nanocomposites formed from various combinations of silicon alkoxides and polymers to create a nanoscale admixture of silica and organic polymers constitute a class of composite materials with combined properties of polymers and ceramics. They are finding increasing applications in protective coatings (Figure 7.1), optical devices, photonics, sensors and catalysis.1... 

The understanding of bio- and chemo-catalytic functionalities, their integration in recognizing materials (doped materials, membranes, tubes, conductive materials, biomarker detection, etc.) and the development of smart composite materials (e.g., bio-polymer-metal) are all necessary elements to reach above objectives. It is thus necessary to create the conditions to realize a cross-fertilization between scientific areas such as catalysis, membrane technology, biotech materials, porous solids, nanocomposites, etc., which so far have had limited interaction. Synergic interactions are the key factor to realizing the advanced nanoengineered devices cited above. 

Metal-organic nanocomposite materials are interesting from the point of view of the bottom-up approach to building future electronic devices. The ability of the organic parts of the composite materials to identify and latch on to other organic molecules is the basis for the possible self assembly of nanoscale devices, while the metallic components provide mechanical robustness and improve the electrical conductance. 

Viart, N., Richard-Plouet, M., Muller, D. and Pourroy, G., Synthesis and characterization of Co/ZnO nanocomposites towards new perspectives offered by metal/piezoelectric composite materials , I ll in Solid Films, 2003 437 1-9. 

Due to their unique mechanical and electronic properties carbon nanotubes (CNT) are promising for use as reinforcing elements in polymer matrixes [1, 2]. The main problems are creation of strong cohesion of CNT with a polymer matrix and uniform distribution of CNT in matrix [3], The goals of this work were development of PTFE-MWNT nanocomposite material with high mechanical characteristics and investigation of influence of MWNT surface groups on mechanical and electronic parameters of the composite material. 

Nanocomposites are materials that contain nanometer sized fillers at a low level. Operating at molecular level, these materials can give a very large improvement in properties of the composite material, such as operating... 

As more sophisticated metal hydrides are developed (nanocrystalline, multicomponent systems, composites and nanocomposites, graphite/metals or similar hybrid systems, clusters, etc.), it is important to be a vare that, for practical applications, a large volume of material should be processed in a fast, inexpensive and reliable vay, for example casting. Techniques such as cold vapor deposition may be impossible to scale up but this does not mean they should be discarded as a means of studying new metal hydrides. On the contrary, laboratory techniques allow much better control of the end product and permit the elaboration of new compounds. Once an attractive compound is found then another challenge w ill have to be faced scaling up the synthesis. In this respect, it is important for the community of metal hydrides researchers to also study large-scale production techniques in order to make the transition from laboratory to industrial scale easier. 

An HDS additive, zinc/copper hydroxy stearate, was melt-blended with low density poly(ethylene). X-ray diffraction analysis of the composite materials was similar to that found with copper hydroxy dodecyl sulfate combined with poly(vinyl ester), where nanocomposite formation was observed, but additional work is necessary for full characterization of the dispersion. The (nano) composites were found to have better thermal stability via TGA and improvement in PHRR in cone calorimetry. However, smoke production was observed to increase. The 5% loading had better overall performance than 10% in terms of thermal stability and most fire properties. 

These are very intimate mixtures composed of two or more sohd phases that differ in composition and each with particle sizes of 10 to 20 mn. Solid phases of these dimensions produce sols when dispersed in a liquid. Two or more sols of different composition can be uniformly mixed and gelled to obtain compositionally different nanocomposites. Figure 13.1a shows the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) picture of a sol-gel nanocomposite of mulhte composition consisting of spherical sihca particles (20 nm) and rod-like alumina (boehmite) particles (approximately 7 nm). Such a uniform physical mixture can be distinguished from a homogeneous sol-gel material which does not show any nonuniformity because it is mixed on an atomic scale (Figure 13.1b). The compositionally... 

As discussed earlier, while the scale of the fillers is substantially different, nanocomposite materials concepts and technology are very similar to those of conventional composite materials. This is clearly demonstrated in the case of new thermosets for nonlinear optical (NLO) applications, " " where nanocomposite of liquid crystalline thermosets, IPNs, and simple filled thermosets are evaluated. Tripathy et al. discussed four different ways to prepare nonlinear optical polymers. (1) The polymer matrix is doped with NLO moieties in a guest/host system (2) In side-chain polymer systems, NLO polymers with active moieties are covalently bonded as pendant groups (3) In the main chain polymer, the chromo-phores are incorporated as parts of the main polymer backbone to enhance the temporal stability of the NLO properties and (4) Stability of the optical noninearity in sol-gel-based thermosets is related to... 

GM recently put into production a new nanocomposite made from thermoplastic olefin with a clay filler. Only about 2 percent clay is used, compared with 20 to 30 percent talc in the composite material it replaces. Two advantages of this new nanocomposite are that it is both light-weight and recyclable. Presently, this nanocomposite is used in the step assist for the full-sized van, but a future goal is to use it in body applications such as vertical and horizontal panels. 

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