Elastomer nanocomposites continued

Historically, polysiloxane elastomers have been reinforced with micron scale particles such as amorphous inorganic silica to form polysiloxane microcomposites. However, with the continued growth of new fields such as soft nanolithography, flexible polymer electronics and biomedical implant technology, there is an ever increasing demand for polysiloxane materials with better defined, improved and novel physical, chemical and mechanical properties. In line with these trends, researchers have turned towards the development of polysiloxane nanocomposites systems which incorporate a heterogeneous second phase on the nanometer scale. Over the last decade, there has been much interest in polymeric nanocomposite materials and the reader is directed towards the reviews by Alexandre and Dubois (4) or Joshi and Bhupendra (5) on the subject. 

FIGURE 4.2 Continuous structures of polymer nanocomposites. (A) SEM image of thermoplastic elastomer/CNT composite with CNT dispersed in polymer matrix. (B) SEM image of PPy/Au nanocomposite with ordered porous structure. (C) SEM image of P(VDF-HFP)/Si02 composite with porous structure. (D) TEM image of PEDOT/graphene composite with a multilayer structure. (A) Reproduced with permission from reference Koemer, H., Price, G., Pearce,... 

Polyesters provide the option of nanocomposites prepared with crystalline and amorphous continuous phases. The crystalline polymers behave in a similar way to the polyamides (nylons) as regards structure-property relationships. The amorphous polymers are a different matter. What is unexplained by first-principle arguments is the dramatic increase in percent elongation to failure [39,45,59] observed with amorphous polymer-montmorillonite composites. This phenomenon also applies to elastomers. 

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