Composite materials tailoring

Many metal stiffener shapes are rather regular and usually have constant thickness unless they are machined (which adds enormously to the cost). However, with composite materials, such regularity is not necessary. In fact, individual stiffener elements can be tailored with... 

The surface properties of CNTs are paramount for their hybridization with other components. The formation of large bundles due to van der Waals interactions between hydrophobic CNT walls further limits the accessibility of individual tubes. Functionalization of CNTs can enhance their dispersion in aqueous solvent mixtures and provide a means for tailoring the interfacial interactions in hybrid and composite materials. Functionalization techniques can be divided in covalent and non-covalent routes, which will be described in greater detail in Chapter 3. 

Butler, E.P., Fuller, E.R. and Chan, H.M. (1990). Interface properties for ceramic composites from a single-fiber pull-out test. In Tailored Interfaces in Composite Materials. Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc, Vol. 170, Materials Research Society, Pittsburg, PA. pp. 17 24. 

The preparation of molecular composites by electropolymerization of heterocycles in solution with polyelectrolytes is an extremely versatile technique, and many polyelectrolyte systems have been studied. The advantages of this method include the use of aqueous systems for the polymerization. Also, the physical and mechanical properties of the overall composite depend on the properties of the polyelectrolyte, so material tailorability is feasible by selection of a polyelectrolyte with desirable properties. 

As a new concept in advanced materials research and development, introduced in the mid-1980s, functionally graded materials (FGMs) are defined as materials whose spatial distribution of microstructure and/or composition is tailored and quantitatively controlled in order to achieve an improvement in properties... 

The first half of this chapter focuses on thermal imaging, describing the technique and the strenuous requirements of suitable laser-printable materials. We illustrate the latter with polyaniline composites specifically tailored for high-resolution printing over large areas with moderate throughput. Their use in active matrix backplane circuits for large, mechanically flexible sheets of electronic paper is then described. 

R. Hayami, K. Ueno, I. Kondou, N. Tamari, and Y. Toibana, Si3N4-SiC Whisker Composite Material, in Tailoring Multiphase and Composite Ceramics, eds. R. E. Tressler, G. L. Messing, C. G. Pontano, and R. E. Newnham, Materials Science Research Series, Plenum Press, New York, NY, 1986, pp. 663-674. 

The examples reported in this chapter show that the new processing routes using liquid organometalfic ceramic precursors allow the tailoring of multiphase and composite materials at the micro- and nanoscale, and hence the development of functionally graded materials. The stringent advantages are a better control of... 

A peculiarity of polymeric composites that makes them very attractive is that their structure and thus their mechanical property profile can be tailored to given requirements and service conditions. Composite materials have been classified in many ways depending on the ideas and concepts that need to be identified. For the... 

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