Structural composite materials technological applications

Since nanoscale metal nanoparticles are applicable to a number of areas of technological importance, the nano-structured materials chemistry will occupy much attention of scientists. It is certain that controlling the primary structures of metal nanoparticles, that is, size, shape, crystal structure, composition, and phase-segregation manner is still most important, because these structures dominate the physical and chemical properties of metal nanoparticles. Now the liquid phase synthesis facilitates the precise control of the primary structures. 

Anodic alumina oxides find steadily growing application in various spheres of technology. Traditionally, they are most popular in civil industrial engineering for producing protective and decorative surface finish in panels and different objects. These applications are well reviewed in the literature.321 Anodic alumina is also widely used in the aircraft and aerospace industry for adhesive bonding of aluminum structures,322-324 composite materials, etc. 

Composites Both UV and EB cures are employed for the production of wood composite materials and in fiber-reinforced composites for aircraft and aerospace applications. The EB technology has been successful in the manufacture of large structures that exceed the size of autoclaves, and in curing adhesive joints in cases where uniform radiation can be provided more easily than uniform heat. In industrial and consumer applications, multiple combinations of different reinforcing fibers can be co-cured in one cycle by EB with considerably lower residual stresses than those introduced by thermal cure.16... 

The principal issues for the materials technology related to the basic properties for polyurethane/CNT composites were already presented in previous sections. It provided the correlation between the structural factors and the properties resulting therefrom. This section, however, is going to present a review of the latest trends in applications for the materials based on polyurethane/CNT composites. 

In addition, advanced polymer processing technology also provided for structural materials such as sheets and films, tubing, laminates, and other composite materials. Table I gives a general overview of the types of application for the various polymer systems. 

The interplay between theory and experiment is of paramount importance in understanding materials properties that in turn is important for technological applications when selecting materials with specific properties. The research in this area accordingly spans the complete range from basic research where the fundamental principles behind materials properties on the one side and their structure and composition on the other side are explored to applied research where one seeks the optimal combination of materials with pre-defined properties for specific applications. 

The ferroelectric materials show a switchable macroscopic electric polarization which effectively couples external electric fields with the elastic and structural properties of these compounds. These properties have been used in many technological applications, like actuators and transducers which transform electrical signals into mechanical work [72], or non-volatile random access memories [73]. From a more fundamental point of view, the study of the phase transitions and symmetry breakings in these materials are also very interesting, and their properties are extremely sensitive to changes in temperature, strain, composition, and defects concentration [74]. 

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