Nanofillers tailored polymers and enhanced synergistic properties for engineering applications: A review

Polymers tailored with different nanofillers are potentially used to fill the gaps of conventional materials for various engineering applications. This can be done because of the exceptional synergistic properties of nanofillers and polymers. Nanofillers have unique mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties. They can be reinforced with the flexible polymer matrix to develop advanced polymer nanocomposites and achieve great engineering performance. The nanofillers tailored nanocomposite have enhanced synergistic properties and functionality, which make it suitable for various engineering applications such as automotive, structural health monitoring, aerospace, coating, electronics devices, biomedical devices, and others. Polymer nanocomposites synthesized using techniques such as in-situ polymerization, the melt intercalation method, the solution intercalation method, and the mixing method showed improved properties. To obtain the polymer nanocomposite with the required quality and performance, we need to consider essential design parameters such as nanofiller types, concentrations, shapes, dispersity, sizes and interfacial relations during the design and optimization processes. The performance and properties of polymer nanocomposites evaluated by using the rheological tests, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), micromechanical analysis, and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) showed the enhanced synergistic properties compared to the pure polymer material.