In this work, the effect of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) addition on physicochemical characteristics of CNFs-reinforced epoxy matrix nanocomposites was studied. Poly(amide imide) solutions in dimethylformamide were electrospun into webs consisting of 250±50 nm fibers which were used to produce CNFs through stabilization and carbonization processes. As a result, the CNFs with average diameter of 200±20 nm were obtained after carbonization process. The nanocomposites with CNFs showed an improvement of thermal stability parameters and fracture toughness factors, compared to those of the specimen without CNFs, which could be probably attributed to the higher specific surface area and larger aspect ratio of CNFs, resulting in improving the mechanical interlocking in the nanocomposites. Also, the applied external loading can effectively transfer to CNFs because strong interactions are resulted between the epoxy matrix and the CNFs.

We investigated the effect of diameter and content of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the physical properties of styrenebutadiene rubber (SBR)/CNTs nanocomposites. CNTs-reinforced SBR nanocomposites were prepared by the melt mixing process. CNTs with different diameters were synthesized by the chemical vapor deposition method (CVD). In this work, the mechanical property and other physical properties of SBR/CNTS nanocomposites were discussed as a function of the content and diameter of CNTs.

The pressureless sintering behavior of /Cu powder mixtures, prepared from /CuO and /Cu-nitrate, has been investigated. Microstructural observation revealed that powders with nano-sized Cu particles could be synthesized by hydrogen reduction method. The specimens, pressureless-sintered at for 4 min using infrared heating furnace with the heating rate of /min, showed the relative density of above 90%. Maximum hardness of 16.1 GPa was obtained in /MgO/Cu nanocomposites. The nanocomposites exhibited the enhanced fracture toughness of 4.3-5.7 , compared with monolithic . The mechanical properties were discussed in terms of microstructural characteristics

Through the electrostatic interaction between the poly-diallydimethylammonium chloride (PDDA) modified Multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) and SnO2 suspension in 1mM NaNo3 solution, MWNT-SnO2 nanocomposites (MSC) for anode electrodes of a Li-ion battery were successfully fabricated by colloidal heterocoagulation method. TEM observation showed that most of the SnO2 nanoparticles were uniformly deposited on the outside surface of the MWNT. Galvanostatic charge/discharge cycling tests showed that MSC anodes exhibited higher specific capacities than bare MWNT and better cyclability than unsupported nano-SnO2 anodes. Also, after 20 cycles, the MSC anode fabricated by heterocoagulation method showed more stable cycle properties than the simply mixed MSC anode. These improved electrochemical properties are attributed to the MWNT, which adsorbs the mechanical stress induced from volume change and increasing electrical conductivity of the MSC anode, and suppresses the aggregation between the SnO2 nanoparticles.

Nanocomposites with polypropylene/clay/wood flour were prepared by melt blending and injection molding. Thermal, mechanical and morphological properties were characterized. The addition of ballmilled clay, compatibilizer and wood flour significantly improved the thermal stability of the hybrids. The tensile modulus and strength of most hybrids was highly increased with the increased loading of clay, maleated polypropylene (MAPP) and wood flour (WF), compared to the PP/WF hybrids. The tensile modulus and strength of most hybrids were highly increased with the increased loading of ballmilled clay, MAPP and wood flour, compared to the hybrids with PP/WF. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) photomicrographs illustrated the intercalated and partially exfoliated structures of the hybrids with ballmilled clay, MAPP and wood flour.

As a part of enhancing the performance of wood-plastic composites (WPC), polypropylene (PP)/ nanoclay (NC)/ wood flour (WF) nanocomposites were prepared using melt blending and injection molding process to evaluate their thermal stability. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was employed to investigate thermal degradation kinetics of the nanocomposites both dynamic and isothermal conditions. Dynamic scans of the TGA showed an increased thermal stability of the nanocomposites at moderate wood flour concentrations (up to 20 phr, percentage based on hundred percent resin) while it decreased with the addition of 30 phr wood flour. The activation energy (Ea) of thermal degradation of nanocomposites increased when nanoclay was added and the concentration of wood flour increased. Different equations were used to evaluate isothermal degradation kinetics using the rate of thermal degradation of the composites, expressed as weight loss (%) from their isothermal TGA curves. Degradation occurred at faster rate in the initial stages of about 60 min., and then proceeded in a gradual manner. However, nanocomposites with wood flour of 30 phr heated at 300℃ showed a drastic difference in their degradation behavior, and reached almost a complete decomposition after 40 min. of the isothermal heating. The degree of decomposition was greater at higher temperatures, and the residual weight of isothermal degradation of nanocomposites greatly varied from about 10 to 90%, depending on isothermal temperatures. The isothermal degradation of nanocomposites also increased their thermal stability with the addition of 1 phr nanoclay and of wood flour up to 20 phr. But, the degradation of PP100/NC1/MAPP3/WF30 nanocomposites with 30 phr wood flour occurs at a faster rate compared to those of the others, indicating a decrease in their thermal stability.

Effect of dispersion methods for Vapor Grown Carbon Fibers (VGCF) in epoxy caused the change in mechanical properties of VGCF/epoxy nanocomposites, such as tensile modulus and tensile strength. The influence of VGCF types - atmospheric plasma treated (APT) VGCF and raw VGCF - and their contents was discussed in detail. Treating VGCF with atmospheric plasma enhanced the surface energy, therefore improved the bonding strength with epoxy matrix. Two different methods used to disperse VGCF were ultrasonic and mechanical homogenizer methods. When using dispersion solutions, the VGCF demonstrated good dispersion in ethanol in both homogenizer and ultrasonic method. The uniform dispersion of VGCF was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) which showed well-dispersion of VGCF in epoxy matrix. The tensile modulus of raw VGCF/epoxy nanocomposites obtained by ultrasonic method was higher than that of one obtained by homogenizer method. APT VGCF/epoxy nanocomposites showed higher tensile strength than that of raw VGCF/epoxy nanocomposites.

The material design and synthesis are of important to modem science and technology. Here, we report the synthesis of multifunctional nanomaterials with different properties: feroelecties and multiferroic materials such as nano-composites by using a chemical synthesis process. These results provide a simple and convenient synthesis process to produce multifunctional nanocomposites.

This article investigated to polymer-clay nanocomposite, especially in interfacial respect clay structure, its dispersion into polymer matrix, and clay modification is studied. The cationic exchange of surfactants with clay gallery results in preparing organo-clay capable of compatiblizing to monomer or polymer and increasing interlayer adhesion energy due to expansion of interlayer spacing. The orientation of surfactant in clay gallery is affected by chemical structure and charge density of clay, and interlayer spacing and volume is increased with alkyl chain length of surfactant, or charge density of clay. Also, the interaction between clay and polymer in preparing polymer-clay nanocomposite is explained thermodynamically. In the future, the study and development of polymer-clay nanocomposite is paid attention to the interfacial adhesion, clay dispersion within polymer, mechanism of clay intercalation or exfoliation.

The microstructure and mechanical properties of hot-pressed composites with a different sintering temperature have been studied. The size of matrix grain and Cu dispersion in composites increased with increase in sintering temperature. Fracture toughness of the composite sintered at high temperature exhibited an enhanced value. The toughness increase was explained by the thermal residual stress, crack bridging and crack branching by the formation of microcrack. The nanocomposite, hot-pressed at , showed the maximum fracture strength of 707 MPa. The strengthening was mainly attributed to the refinement of matrix grains and the increased toughness.

The microstructure and mechanical property of hot-pressed nanocomposites with a different temperature for atmosphere changing from to Ar have been studied. When the atmosphere changed from to Ar gas at , the hot-pressed composite was characterized by inhomogeneous microstructure and low fracture strength. On the contrary, when the atmosphere changed at a lower temperature of , a more homogeneous microstructure and higher fracture strength was observed.

Cu- nanocomposite powders were synthesized by combining high-energy ball-milling of Cu-Ti-B mixtures and subsequent self-propagating high temperature synthesis (SHS). Cu-40wt.% powders were produced by SHS reaction and ball-milled. The milled SHS powder was mixed with Cu powders by ball milling to produce Cu-2.5wt.% composites. particles less than 250nm were formed in the copper matrix after SHS-reaction. The releative density, electrical conductivity and hardness of specimens sintered at were nearly 98%, 83%IACS and 71HRB, respectively. After heat treatment at 850 to for 2 hours under Ar atmosphere, hardness was descedned by 15%. Our Cu- composite showed good thermal stability at eleveated temperature.

The microstructure and electrical conductivity of CNTs dispersed nanocomposites depending on the powder processing and CNTs content were demonstrated. The composite powders with homogeneous dispersion of CNTs could be synthesized by a catalytic route for direct formation of CNTs on nano-sized Fe dispersed powders. The sintered nanocomposite using the composite powder with directly synthesized CNTs showed homogeneous microstructure and enhanced elelctrical conductivity. The influence of powder processing on the properties of sintered nanocomposites was discussed by the observed microstructural features.

We studied formation of nanostructured -Cu composites under shock wave conditions. We investigated the influence of preliminary mechanical activation (MA) of Ti-B-Cu powder mixtures on the peculiarities of the reaction between Ti and B under shock wave. In the MA-ed mixture the reaction proceeded completely while in the non-activated mixture the reagents remained along with the product . titanium diboride. The size of titanium diboride particles in the central part of the compact was 100-300 nm.

In this study, bottom-up type powder processing and top-down type SPD (severe plastic deformation) approaches were combined in order to achieve full density of Carbon nanotube (CNT)/metal matrix composites with superior mechanical properties by improved particle bonding and least grain growth, which were considered as a bottle neck of the bottom-up method using the conventional powder metallurgy of compaction and sintering. ECAP (equal channel angular pressing), the most promising method in SPD, was used for the CNT/Cu powder consolidation. The powder ECAP processing with 1, 2, 4 and 8 route C passes was conducted at room temperature.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted remarkable attention as reinforcement for composites owing to their outstanding mechanical properties. The CNT/Cu nanocomposite is fabricated by a novel fabrication process named molecular level process. The novel process for fabricating CNT/Cu composite powders involves suspending CNTs in a solvent by surface functionalization, mixing Cu ions with CNT suspension, drying, calcination and reduction. The molecular level process produces CNT/Cu composite powders whereby the CNTs are homogeneously implanted within Cu powders. The mechanical properties of CNT/Cu nanocomposite, consolidated by spark plasma sintering of CNT/Cu composite powders, shows about 3 times higher strength and 2 times higher Young's modulus than those of Cu matrix.