Chapter 5 - High Performance Polymer Nanocomposites for Structural Applications

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There is an impending need for light-weight, high-strength materials for the development of structural components for construction, infrastructure, wind energy, automobile, and space applications. Polymer nanocomposites have been envisaged to have unique advantages in such applications as they offer very high specific stiffness at low cost. They overcome limitations imposed on traditional structural materials through their intrinsic characteristics and a variety of combinatorial approaches. Polymer nanocomposites essentially consist of a polymer phase in which nanofillers are uniformly dispersed. The nanofillers have at least one dimension in the range of 1–50 nm, allowing a significant increase in the interfacial area, and in the case of anisotropic fillers, their aspect ratio is many times higher than their conventional analogues. Such characteristics entail an efficient load transfer mechanism and lead to high reinforcement of polymer matrix at a much lower loading of the filler. Owing to their exceptionally high specific strength and high aspect ratio, nanofillers such as carbon nanotubes, nanoclays, graphene, nanocrystalline cellulose, and boron nitride tubes have shown exceptional reinforcement effect in different polymer matrices. Nanocomposites synthesis, however, demands proper selection of nanofiller and polymer matrix, stabilization of the achieved dispersion, interface modification, desired orientation, and packing of the dispersed phase. The chapter describes the technological aspects of polymer nanocomposites with a specific reference to micromechanics, morphology, and interfacial interactions. A detailed account of thermoplastics, elastomers, and thermosets has been presented with a brief discussion on important nanofillers and interface modification techniques. Few recent examples of novel polymer nanocomposites that displayed exceptionally high mechanical properties have also been discussed.