Polymer Nanocomposites Based on Nanodiamond Particles

In the last decades, nanostructured materials, especially carbon nanoparticles, have attracted much attention because of their widespread applications in different areas. Spherical shape, chemically active surface as well as remarkable mechanical properties make nanodiamond an ideal candidate for improving polymers properties. Poor dispersion and agglomeration are major problems in achieving improved properties in polymer nanocomposites. To deal with this problem, various methods are considered for surface modification of nanodiamond and wet chemical method is used in most cases. Nanodiamond, due to its remarkable properties, is incorporated in many polymer nanocomposites with thermoplastic and thermoset matrix. Using nanodiamond has improved nanocomposites properties such as mechanical and wear properties. Using as-received nanodiamond and surface modified nanodiamond in thermoplastic matrix are reported and the mechanical properties are improved in both cases. Most of the works on thermoset matrices are focused on epoxy. Incorporation of high weight fractions (35 wt%) and low weight fractions (below the 1 wt%) of nanodiamond are investigated, showing improvements in mechanical and tribological properties.