Abstract
Highly ordered polymer nanocomposites are complex materials that display a rich morphological behavior owing to variations in composition, structure, and properties on a nanometer length scale. Metal-polymer nanocomposite materials are becoming more popular for applications requiring low cost, high metal surface areas. Catalytic systems seem to be the most prevalent application for a wide range of metals used in polymer nanocomposites, particularly for metals like Pt, Ni, Co, and Au, with known catalytic activities. On the other hand, among the most frequently utilized techniques to prepare polymer/CNT and/or polymer/clay nanocomposites are approaches like melt mixing, solution casting, electrospinning and solid-state shear pulverization. Additionally, some of the current and potential applications of polymer/CNT and/or polymer/clay nanocomposites include photovoltaic devices, optical switches, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, aerospace and automotive materials, packaging, adhesives and coatings. This extensive review covers a broad range of articles, typically from high impact-factor journals, on most of the polymer-nanocomposites known to date: polymer/carbon nanotubes, polymer/metal nanospheres, and polymer/clay nanoplatelets composites. The various types of nanocomposites are described form the preparation stages to performance and applications. Comparisons of the various types of nanocomposites are conducted and conclusions are formulated.
Highlights
Introduction to Polymer NanocompositesHighly ordered polymer nanocomposites are complex materials that display a rich morphological behavior because of variations in composition, structure, and properties on a nanometer length scale [1,2,3,4]
The aim of the present paper is to provide an extended review of the recent scientific methodologies utilized to prepare and characterize polymer nanocomposites containing metals, carbon nanotubes and clay nanoplatelets as reinforcing agents
The results suggested that incorporating either the treated or the untreated multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) generated a decrease in the polymer crystallinity, similar to what has been observed by Chatterjee et al for single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) [33]
Summary
Ordered polymer nanocomposites are complex materials that display a rich morphological behavior because of variations in composition, structure, and properties on a nanometer length scale [1,2,3,4]. Novel physical properties of soft and bulk polymer nanocomposite materials are dependent on the supramolecular organization of the nanostructures [5]. Incorporation of metals into polymer matrixes has been shown to produce unique optical, magnetic and dielectric properties at the nano- and macro-scale in nanocomposites, apparently due to the surface and confinement effects of the nanoparticles [9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. Some of the structures that have been shown to occur as a result of magnetic assembly include 1-D chains [16], flux closure rings [17], 2-D superlattices of closed packed nanocrystals [18], and 3-D labyrinth-like suprastructures [19]
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