Novel multi-functional polymer nancomposites: hybrid nanomaterials based on high aspect-ratio metal nanowires mixed with other nanofillers.

在该计划中，我们将创造轻质多功能聚合物纳米复合材料，适用于电子，航空航天，汽车和军事应用中的金属或高填充复合材料。这些纳米复合材料将基于混合设计，即将使用一种以上的纳米填料并与聚合物或聚合物的共混物混合。通过控制结构，我们建议将纳米填料定位，从而减少填料负载，从而降低纳米复合材料的总重量和成本。我们将使用商业上可用的和定制设计的纳米颗粒和纤维来生产低重量，高性能的材料，具有独特的机械，电气和热性能的组合。特别是，我们的团队有能力制造高纵横比的金属纳米线，可用于电子应用的纳米复合材料，这些纳米线可以与其他纳米填料或大填料结合，以满足汽车，航空航天和军事领域的要求。聚合物纳米复合材料显示出比它们的微复合材料对应物优越的上级性能，因为纳米填料（1- 100 nm尺寸）与聚合物分子具有相同的尺寸，因此可以显著改变与聚合物基质的物理和化学相互作用。我们将利用这种独特的纳米材料-聚合物界面，设计包含纳米线或纳米线与其他高纵横比纳米填料（如无机粘土或碳纳米管）的组合的聚合物纳米复合材料。这些材料是人们强烈关注的主题，因为它们可以使用常规的聚合物加工技术制造，并且在大量的高科技应用中，如光化学、生物医学、包装、传感器、催化、燃料电池、太阳能电池等，这些材料具有商业化的巨大潜力。我们的目标是生产具有多功能特性的新型多填料杂化纳米复合材料，在电子，航空航天，汽车和军事工业中具有巨大的市场潜力。

In this program, we will create lightweight multi-functional polymer nanocomposite materials that are suitable to replace metal or highly filled composites for electronics, aerospace, automotive and military applications. These nanocomposites will be based on a hybrid design, i.e. more than one nanofiller will be used and mixed with a polymer or with a blend of polymers. By controlling the structure, we propose to localize the nanofiller and thereby reduce filler loading and conseuntly, reduce the overall weight and cost of the nanocomposite. We will use both commmercially available and custom-designed nanoparticles and fibers to yield low weight, high performance materials with unique combinations of mechanical, electrical an thermal properties. In particular, our group has the capability to make high aspect ratio metal nanowires that can be used for nancomposites with application in electronics, and these nanowires can be combined with other nanofillers or macrofillers to fill requirements for example, in the automotive, aerospace and military sectors. Polymer nanocomposites display superior properties to their microcomposite counterparts because nanofillers (1-100nm dimension) are the same size as polymer molecules and therefore, can significantly alter the physical and chemical interactions with the polymer matrix. We will take advantage of this unique nanomaterial-polymer interface and design polymer nanocomposites incorporating nanowires or combinations of nanowires and other high aspect-ratio nanofillers like inorganic clays or carbon nanotubes. These materials are the subject of intense interest because they can be manufactured using conventional polymer processing techniques and there is significant potential to commercialize these materials in a large number of high-tech applications such as photovoltaics, biomedical, packaging, sensors, catalysis, fuel cells, solar cells and others. Our goal is to produce novel multi-filler hybrid nanocomposites with multifunctional properties with a significant market potential in the electronics, aerospace, automotive and military industries.