Reinforced Polymer Nanocomposites

Among the applications discussed in this chapter, the most prominent in recent years is CNT-reinforced polymer nanocomposites. The use of CNTs in polymers can provide superior mechanical properties (60). For instance, the addition of 1% CNTs might increase the stiffness of polymers by 10% and increase their resistance to fracture however, improvements in the properties of CNT-reinforced polymers largely depend on the dispersion of CNTs within the polymer matrix and the polymer-CNT interfacial properties. The following section highlights several studies regarding the processing of PLA-CNT nanocomposites. 

Vlasveld, D. P. N,Fibre reinforced polymer nanocomposites, Ph.D. dissertation, Technische Universiteit Delft, 2005. 

Tensile testing of single crystalline metallic microwhiskers can also be studied following the experimental tensile testing constructed by Brenner and (b) results of whisker fracture strength as a function of whisker size, showed the clear size dependence (Fig. 3.34). The chitin whiskers are usually incorporated into polymer matrix to prepare CWs reinforced polymer nanocomposite. Thus, the mechanical... 

These are fields defined throughout space in the continuum theory. Thus, the total energy of the system is an integral of these quantities over the volume of the sample dt). The FEM has been incorporated in some commercial software packages and open source codes (e.g., ABAQUS, ANSYS, Palmyra, and OOF) and widely used to evaluate the mechanical properties of polymer composites. Some attempts have recently been made to apply the FEM to nanoparticle-reinforced polymer nanocomposites. In order to capture the multiscale material behaviors, efforts are also underway to combine the multiscale models spanning from molecular to macroscopic levels [51,52]. 

Thermal Stability of Inorganic Nanoparticle-Reinforced Polymer Nanocomposites... 

As a result of the existing manufacturing techniques, a great amount of nanomaterials such as nanofibers, carbon nanotubes, SiO and nanoclay is currently available and the use of fiber-reinforced polymer nanocomposites in practical applications is continuously growing. It has been reported in the literature that nanoclays account for approximately 70% of the total volume of commercially used nanomaterials [8]. 

Goettler, L. A., Lee, K. Y., and Thakkar, H. 2007. Layered silicate reinforced polymer nanocomposites Development and applications. Polymer Reviews 47 291-317. 

Key words ballistic fibers, micro-Raman spectroscopy, nanotechnology, reinforcement mechanisms, reinforcing polymer nanocomposite fibers. 

L.A. Goettler, K.Y. Lee, H. Thakkar, Layered silicate reinforced polymer nanocomposites development and applications, Polymer Reviews 47 (2) (2007) 291-317. 

Abstract Polymer nanocomposites processing requires incorporating nanoparticles into polymer matrix in a controllable fashion in order to successfully transfer the outstanding properties of nanoparticles to the final nanocomposite. This chapter first reviews various processing techniques to fabricate nanoparticles reinforced polymer nanocomposites. It then discusses some critical processing-related issues for property improvement, including the selection of nanoparticle and polymer matrix, quality of dispersion, ahgnment and functionahzation of nanoparticles. 

Yasmin, A., Luo, J. and Daniel, I. M., Processing of expanded graphite reinforced polymer nanocomposites . Composites Science and Technology, 2006, 66, 1182-1189. 

On the other hand, CNTs possess one of the highest thermal conductivities, which can be exploited to fabricate thermally conductive nauocomposites [8,9]. This chapter wiU focus on the applications of CNTs as discontinuous reinforcement for polymer matrices, which includes fabrication methods, morphologies and mechanical properties of the carbon nanotubes reinforced polymer nanocomposites. 

Njuguna, K. Pielichowski, and S. Desai, "Nanofiller-reinforced polymer nanocomposites," Polymers for Advanced Technologies, pp. 947-959, 2008,... 

The preparation procedures of polysaccharide nanocrystal reinforced polymer nanocomposites using latexes consist of mixing and casting the two aqueous suspensions, followed by... 

Organic/inorganic nanocomposites prepared by in situ polymerization methods have received extensive attention in recent years. Unlike microscale fillers, nanoscale fillers can offer excellent properties to a polymer matrix. Nanosized filler, with a few weight percent in the reinforced polymer nanocomposites, strongly influences the macroscopic properties of the polymer. The resultant polymer nanocomposites can significantly improve some of their properties, such as higher heat distortion temperatures, enhanced flame resistance, increased modulus, better barrier properties, reduced thermal expansion coefficient, and altered electronic and optical properties. 

One of major changes for high performance polymer nanocomposites is to optimize the processing of CNT-reinforced polymer nanocomposites with low costs. Four processing techniques are in common use to fabricate the CNT/polymer nanocomposites direct mixing, solution method, in situ polymerization, and melt compounding [26-35]. Among these... 

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