Pre-preg is a composite material made from "pre-impregnated" fibers and a partially cured polymer matrix, such as epoxy or phenolic resin, or even thermoplastic mixed with liquid rubbers or resins. The fibers often take the form of a weave and the matrix is used to bond them together and to other components during manufacture. The thermoset matrix is only partially cured to allow easy handling; this B-Stage material requires cold storage to prevent complete curing. B-Stage pre-preg is always stored in cooled areas since heat accelerates complete polymerization. Hence, composite structures built of pre-pregs will mostly require an oven or autoclave to cure. The main idea behind a pre-preg material is the use of anisotropic mechanical properties along the fibers, while the polymer matrix provides filling properties, keeping the fibers in a single system.
A non-carbon nanotube is a cylindrical molecule often composed of metal oxides, or group III-Nitrides and morphologically similar to a carbon nanotube. Non-carbon nanotubes have been observed to occur naturally in some mineral deposits.
Foster-Miller, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Qinetiq, is an American-based military robotics manufacturer. Its two best-known products are its TALON robots and its LAST Armor.
Nanocomposite is a multiphase solid material where one of the phases has one, two or three dimensions of less than 100 nanometers (nm) or structures having nano-scale repeat distances between the different phases that make up the material.
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are cylinders of one or more layers of graphene (lattice). Diameters of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) are typically 0.8 to 2 nm and 5 to 20 nm, respectively, although MWNT diameters can exceed 100 nm. CNT lengths range from less than 100 nm to 0.5 m.
Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers, carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers, carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic, also known as carbon fiber, carbon composite, or just carbon, are extremely strong and light fiber-reinforced plastics that contain carbon fibers. CFRPs can be expensive to produce, but are commonly used wherever high strength-to-weight ratio and stiffness (rigidity) are required, such as aerospace, superstructures of ships, automotive, civil engineering, sports equipment, and an increasing number of consumer and technical applications.
Boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) are a polymorph of boron nitride. They were predicted in 1994 and experimentally discovered in 1995. Structurally they are similar to carbon nanotubes, which are cylinders with sub-micrometer diameters and micrometer lengths, except that carbon atoms are alternately substituted by nitrogen and boron atoms. However, the properties of BN nanotubes are very different: whereas carbon nanotubes can be metallic or semiconducting depending on the rolling direction and radius, a BN nanotube is an electrical insulator with a bandgap of ~5.5 eV, basically independent of tube chirality and morphology. In addition, a layered BN structure is much more thermally and chemically stable than a graphitic carbon structure. BNNTs have unique physical and chemical properties, when compared to Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) providing a very wide range of commercial and scientific applications. Although BNNTs and CNTs share similar tensile strength properties of circa 100 times stronger than steel and 50 times stronger than industrial-grade carbon fibre, BNNTs can withstand high temperatures of up to 900 °C. as opposed to CNTs which remain stable up to temperatures of 400 °C, and are also capable of absorbing radiation. BNNTS are packed with physicochemical features including high hydrophobicity and considerable hydrogen storage capacity and they are being investigated for possible medical and biomedical applications, including gene delivery, drug delivery, neutron capture therapy, and more generally as biomaterials BNNTs are also superior to CNTs in the way they bond to polymers giving rise to many new applications and composite materials.
In materials science, a polymer matrix composite (PMC) is a composite material composed of a variety of short or continuous fibers bound together by a matrix of organic polymers. PMCs are designed to transfer loads between fibers of a matrix. Some of the advantages with PMCs include their light weight, high resistance to abrasion and corrosion, and high stiffness and strength along the direction of their reinforcements.
Robert Joseph Young is a British materials scientist specialising in polymers and composites. He is a Professor of Polymer Science and Technology at the National Graphene Institute of the University of Manchester.
Alan Kin-tak Lau is an engineer and academic based in Hong Kong SAR. He is the President and Chair Professor of Product Innovation at Technological and Higher Education Institute (Thei) of Hong Kong. Prior to this appointment, he was Pro Vice-Chancellor at Swinburne University of Technology. He is also the Independent Non-Executive Director of King’s Flair International (Holdings) Limited, the International Vice President and Trustee Board member of The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (2014-2019) and an Academic Advisor at Asia University. He was also appointed the Chair of professional accreditation panel for APEC/IPEA for Korea. From 2014 to 2016, he was the Alex Wong/Gigi Wong Endowed Professor in Product Engineering Design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HPKU). Currently, he is a Fellow of European Academy of Sciences and Arts, the European Academy of Sciences. Lau has conducted research in the field of Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering and Materials Engineering. His work has been focused on aerospace composites, Unmanned aerial vehicle, product design and engineering and bio-composites. Lau is recognized as Australian National Research Leader in Composite Materials 2019, published by The Australian Post. Within the period 2020-2022, he was Director of Oceania Cybersecurity Centre Limited and Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory Company.
Gurpreet Singh is a professor of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at [Kansas State University]. He is endowed by the Harold O. and Jane C. Massey Neff Professorship in Mechanical Engineering. Singh was born in Ludhiana, India; he currently resides in the United States.
Sharmila Mitra Mukhopadhyay is a professor of materials science and Director of the Center for Nanoscale Multifunctional Materials at Wright State University. In 2016 she was elected as a Jefferson Science Fellow, working as a science advisor to the United States Department of State.
Linda Sue Schadler is the Dean of the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Vermont. Her research investigates the mechanical, optical and electric behaviour of polymer composites. She is a Fellow of the Materials Research Society and ASM International.
Susan Buthaina Sinnott is professor and head of materials science and engineering at Pennsylvania State University. Sinnott is a fellow of the Materials Research Society (MRS), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the American Physical Society (APS). She has served as editor-in-chief of the journal Computational Materials Science since 2014.
Kinshuk Dasgupta is an Indian research scientist at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. He also holds an associate professorship at the Homi Bhabha National Institute. He earned his Bachelor in Engineering from Jadavpur University in metallurgy and PhD from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai in chemical engineering. His research expertise mainly includes work on carbon based nano materials and composite synthesis of the use of nano materials.
An Automotive textile is a technical textile used in the transportation and automotive industries. The choice of type of automotive textile focuses on aspects of safety, comfort, and aesthetics. These textiles have variety of applications in the automotive industry, such as interior fittings, safety features, sound insulation, and tire reinforcement.
Mohsen (MO) Shahinpoor is an Iranian American engineer, scientist, and academician. He is a professor and Director at the University of Maine College of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering. He is also a professor in the Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering at the University of Maine.
Structural composite supercapacitors are multifunctional materials that can both bear mechanical load and store electrical energy. Combined with structural batteries, they would potentially enable an overall weight reduction of electric vehicles.
Karen Lozano is a Mexican American researcher who is the Professor and Julia Beecherl Endowed Chair Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas System. She studies carbon nanofiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites, and is the Director of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Nanotechnology Center of Excellence. She was elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2020 and the National Academy of Engineering in 2022.
Zoubeida Ounaies is a Tunisian-American materials scientist whose research involves nanocomposites, smart materials, and piezoelectricity in polymers. She is a professor of mechanical engineering at Pennsylvania State University, affiliated with the Penn State Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Materials Science and Engineering and with the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment. At Penn State, she is director of the Convergence Center for Living Multifunctional Material Systems, and acting director of the Materials Research Institute.
