We examine the effective diffusion coefficient of composites containing randomly placed, impermeable, oriented disks of high aspect ratio. We extend previous work by providing a quantitative framework in which to examine disorder and polydispersity effects, as well as treating explicitly the crossover from the dilute to the semidilute regime as the concentration of disks is increased. Our results have applicability to matrices filled with macroscopic plates or flakes (for example, mica-filled polymers) as well as to polymer–clay hybrid materials (“nanocomposites”).
New nanocomposites are currently being developed that have real industrial potential—loading a polymer with a small (ca. 5 %) amount of inorganic nanoparticles (the Figure shows a polypropylene–clay hybrid composite) is expected to give rise to significant improvement to the materials properties with only a minor increase in cost. Recent developments in this area are summarized here.
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