Abstract
In this article, the authors present their point of view on whether an analogy can be drawn between nano and classical microcomposites. Their opinion corresponds with a 25-year-old opinion article by Calvert and is based on their own extensive studies and a large body of studies in the scientific literature. They propose that polymer nanocomposites are in fact quasi-homogeneous molecular blends, which ought to be regarded as molecular composites or self-reinforced polymers. Hence, the micromechanical models of classical composites may not generally apply to nanocomposites, where—instead—the interactions on a molecular scale between the nanoparticles and the polymer matrix control the properties. A few examples, including of nucleation and confinement by nanoparticles, are discussed.
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Acknowledgements
We wish to thank the reviewer for suggesting that we refer to the scale limit of continuum models of polymer nanocomposites and for pointing out the example of ceramic nanocomposites.
We also would like to acknowledge partial support from the G.M.J. Schmidt Minerva Center of Supramolecular Architectures at the Weizmann Institute, and the China-Israel Science Foundations collaborative research grant. This research was also made possible in part by the generosity of the Harold Perlman family. H.D.W. is the recipient of the Livio Norzi Professorial Chair in Materials Science at the Weizmann Institute.
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Marom, G., Daniel Wagner, H. Should polymer nanocomposites be regarded as molecular composites?. J Mater Sci 52, 8357–8361 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-017-1113-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-017-1113-7