Some Issues on Structure-Properties of Polymer Nanocomposites

By adding a small percentage of clay to polymers, usually less than 10 wt%, their stiffness, strength, dimensional stability, and barrier resistance are significantly enhanced. The improvements are often attributed to the availability of large numbers of clay nanolayers with tremendous interfacial area even at a low level of clay loading. Despite these positive effects due to the addition of clay, there are still some issues, such as embrittlement, thermal stability, tribological response of the resultant nanocomposites, which will require in-depth understanding and rigorous theoretical/numerical analyses. Recent developments and achievements in these issues at the CAMT, University of Sydney, are addressed.