Graphitic Nanocarbon Polymer Multifunctional Composites

Call for Papers

Incorporation of nanofillers into polymers creates new materials with improved properties and expanding functions while retaining excellent manufacturing and processing flexibility inherent to polymers. Compared with conventional nanofillers, however, graphitic nanocarbons, typically including carbon nanotubes and graphene, have been increasingly recognized as promising candidates for functional components to strengthen and/or functionalize polymer composites because of their low-dimensional nanostructures with a honeycomb network of sp²-hybridized carbons and unique size-/surface-dependent properties. Graphitic nanocarbon polymer composites (GNCPCs), therefore, have attracted substantial academic and industrial interest in various research fields. The critical challenges lie in uniformly dispersing and exfoliating fillers into a polymer to create a strong filler-matrix interface that provides effective load transfer, producing high-performance GNCPCs. There are still some fundamental issues to be improved by optimal methodologies and processing techniques. Moreover, previous research has mostly focused on the mechanical reinforcement of GNCPCs, while their functional applications in regard to the electrical, thermal, and optical properties need to be paid more attention in the future.

We cordially invite investigators to contribute original research papers as well as review papers with particular emphasis on functional applications of GNCPCs. Authors devoted to improve the dispersion and interface in GNCPCs are encouraged to submit their latest achievements. New knowledge on structure-property relationships is widely welcome together with modeling predictions on macroscopic properties for given GNCPCs. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• New methods to improve the dispersion and interface of nanocarbon fillers in GNCPCs
• Advanced processing technologies and potential engineering applications of GNCPCs
• Structure-processing-property relationships, mechanism, and theoretical research
• GNCPCs for energy storage, harvesting, and conversion applications
• GNCPCs for actuators, sensors, electronics, and optoelectronics

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijps/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/ijps/graph/ according to the following timetable:

Lead Guest Editor

• Yingkui Yang, Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Hubei University, Wuhan, Hubei 430062, China

Guest Editors

• Avinash Baji, School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
• Youhong Tang, Centre for Nanoscale Science and Technology and School of Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA 5042, Australia
• Haobin Zhang, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Chaoyang, Beijing 100029, China