ABSTRACT
The automotive industry faces increased global competition for higher performance vehicles with tighter environmental requirements. Ultimately lighter, stronger, and stiffer materials will translate to lighter vehicles and hence lower fuel consumption and lower emissions. Composites are being used increasingly in the automotive industry due to their high specific strength and specific stiffness. Conventional composite materials made from the existing class of polymer systems and fiber architectures have limitations in further increasing specific strength and stiffness values. Additionally, thermoset resin systems are inherently brittle and have weak interlaminar resistance through the thickness of laminated composites. With invention of new class of nanomaterials and nanostructures in the past few decades, nanocomposites are positioned to solve some of the existing problems in composites and further improve specific strength and stiffness over traditional fiber-reinforced composites.
