Q&A

Research in the development and application of advanced polymeric materials for aerospace power and propulsion applications is conducted at many of NASA’s research centers. Nanotech Briefs posed the following question to Dr. Michael Meador, Chief of the Polymers Branch within the Materials Division at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, OH.

Why are nanomaterials so attractive to industry?

Nanostructured materials, or nanotechnology, offer you the ability to design and develop new materials with properties, performance, and process ability that far exceed that of conventional materials. For example, polymer clay nanocomposites. Traditionally, when you design a new composite material (a conventional composite, not a nanocomposite), you can, for instance, get more strength out of the composite, but if you do that, then the resulting material is more brittle. So, the advances or the increases that you achieve in strength come at the expense of the toughness of the material. However, with polymer clay nanocomposites you can get both. That is, you can see a significant increase in the strength of the material as well as an increase in the toughness of the material. It allows you to basically segregate properties. With a proper choice of nanostructured material, I can go in and decide to only strengthen the material – increase its mechanical or tensile strength. I can do that without affecting the other properties. This is what’s neat about it. If you are looking at commercial applications, there is a whole gamut of nanostructured materials out there, some of which people are working with already, like polymer clay nanocomposites, and some things are much farther out, like fibers made out of carbon nanotubes that are ultra-high-strength.

Find out more about NASA Glenn’s nanomaterials research at: www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/MDWeb/5150/nanomaterials.html