ABSTRACT
According to the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) (Work et al., 2004), a composite material is dešned as “a multicomponent material comprising multiple different (non-gaseous) phase domains in which at least one type of phase domain is in a continuous phase.” IUPAC also extends its dešnition to nanocomposite materials as those composites “in which at least one of the phases has at least one dimension of the order of nanometers.” Based on these dešnitions, a plethora of systems can be classišed among these materials, the dispersions
of nanosized objects of di£erent nature-such as metal particles or carbon nanotubes-or intercalated/exfoliated layered minerals in continuous/polymeric phases being prime examples. PCNs fall in the last category of the examples cited above.
