This book covers smart polymer nanocomposites with perspectives for application in energy harvesting, as self-healing materials, or shape memory materials. The book is application-oriented and describes different types of polymer nanocomposites, such as elastomeric composites, thermoplastic composites, or conductive polymer composites. It outlines their potential for applications, which would meet some of the most important challenges nowadays: for harvesting energy, as materials with the capacity to self-heal, or as materials memorizing a given shape. The book brings together these different applications for the first time in one single platform. Chapters are ordered both by the type of composites and by the target applications. Readers will thus find a good overview, facilitating a comparison of the different smart materials and their applications. The book will appeal to scientists in the fields of chemistry, material science and engineering, but also to technologists and physicists, from graduate student level to researcher and professional.

Autorentext

Dr. Deepalekshmi Ponnamma is a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Advanced Materials Qatar University. She received her doctoral degree from the Deakin University, Australia. Her research in the field of polymer nanocomposites (among other topics) has been published in international journals and book contributions, and has been awarded at several international conferences with best poster and oral presentation awards. Deepalekshmi Ponnamma already is experienced book editor. Dr. Kishor Kumar Sadasivuni is a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Qatar University. He has previously worked at the Inha University, South Korea, University of South Brittany, France and Mahatma Gandhi University, India. He has been involved in the publication of several papers in international journals and of book chapters and has already coedited several books in the fields of polymers, elastomers and composites. He servesas a guest editor in Sensors & Transducers journal and a lead guest editor in International Journal of Materials Science and Applications. Dr. John-John Cabibihan is an Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Qatar University. He is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Social Robotics; and the Chair of the IEEE. He received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Robotics from the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy in 2007. Prof. Mariam Al-Maadeed is the Director of the Center for Advanced Materials, Qatar University. She has received the Physics State Award 2010/ 2011 and the Gulf Petrochemical Association (GPCA) Plastic Excllence Award in 2014. She received her PhD from Alexandria Univ., Egypt in 2001.

Inhalt
Polymer Composites: Perspectives for Energy Harvesting, Self-healing and Shape Memory.- Energy harvesting with crystalline polymer composites: cellulose, and PVDF composites.- Energy harvesting using conductive polymer composites.- Application of poly (3-hexylthiophene) P3HT composites for energy harvesting.- Energy harvesting with poly(fluorene-co-thiophene) and perflouro polymer composites.- Elastomer composites in energy harvesting: poly (dimethylsiloxane), polyurethane composites.- Poly--benzyl-L-glutamate, poly(methyl methacrylate) composites and their application for energy harvesting.- Self-healing materials from elastomeric composites.- Self-healing materials from crystalline polymer composites.- Thermoplastic polymer composites as self-healing materials.- Application of conductive polymer composites as self-healing materials.- Self-healing of biopolymers and their composites.- Shape memory materials from elastomeric composites.- Conductive polymer composites: Perspectives asshape memory materials.- Thermoplastic polymer composites as shape memory materials.- Crystalline polymer composites as shape memory materials.