It is increasingly important that we learn how to fabricate materials in environmentally friendly ways using common resources that are abundant in nature. Biomineralization, the process by which living organisms create a variety of sophisticated composites, such as bone and shell, is an ideal model for such fabrication. This article reviews recent progress toward the synthesis of polymer–inorga...

19 Clay-polymer composites were designed for use in filtration processes for disinfection 20 during the course of water purification. The composites were formed by sorption of 21 polymers based on starch modified with quaternary ammonium ethers onto the 22 negatively charged clay mineral bentonite. The performance of the clay-polymer 23 complexes in removal of bacteria was strongly dependent on...

This review summarizes the current state of polymer composites used as dielectric materials for energy storage. The particular focus is on materials: polymers serving as the matrix, inorganic fillers used to increase the effective dielectric constant, and various recent investigations of functionalization of metal oxide fillers to improve compatibility with polymers. We review the recent litera...

Two approaches for predicting elastic properties of SWCN/polymer composites, equivalentcontinuum modeling and the self-similar approach, are presented and compared in terms of assumptions and ranges of validity. Both models incorporate information about molecular interactions at the nanometer length scale into a continuum-mechanics based model. It is shown that the two approaches can predict el...

This review paper reported carbon nanotubes reinforced composites for biomedical applications. Several studies have found enhancement in the mechanical properties of CNTs-based reinforced composites by the addition of CNTs. CNTs reinforced composites have been intensively investigated for many aspects of life, especially being made for biomedical applications. The review introduced fabrication ...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanical and thermal properties of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) composites reinforced by bamboo pulp fibers (BPF). Using a twin-screw extruder, polymer composites were fabricated using BPF and bamboo flour (BF) as the reinforcement and HDPE as the matrix. Tensile and flexural tests of the HDPE composites were performed to determine the mech...

Polymer composites based on natural fillers are currently attracting great attention as alternative materials to glass or synthetic fibre reinforced plastics in several applications, mostly for automotive, appliance and packaging products. The main advantage of employing natural fibres is that these are biodegradable and renewable, and exhibit low cost, low density and high toughness. However t...

Electrically tunable liquid crystal microlenses have attracted strong research attention due to their advantages of tunable focusing, voltage actuation, low power consumption, simple fabrication, compact structure, and good stability. They are expected to be essential optical devices with widespread applications. However, the slow response time of nematic liquid crystal (LC) microlenses has bee...

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), a class of renewable bionanomaterials with excellent mechanical properties, have gained major interest as filler for polymers. However, challenges associated with effective CNC dispersion have hindered the production of composites with desired property enhancements. Here, composites of polypropylene (PP) and low density polyethylene (LDPE) with 5e10 wt% unmodified...