The addition of particulate additives has long been used as a method to adjust and design material systems for specific loading conditions. The transfer of loading to particulate additives can result in added toughness and can change ductility, among other properties. These changes are a function of many factors including the size, concentration, mechanical properties, interaction strength and dispersion of the particles. Recent advancements in scientific knowledge and manufacturing techniques have guided research towards the inclusion of particles with characteristic lengths measuring less than 100 nm and a renewed interested in particulate reinforced materials. This reduction in particle size can provide a drastic increase in the surface area between particle and matrix, which can theoretically provide increased load transfer and increased toughening. The reduction in particle size does result in a series of additional manufacturing and analysis challenges, namely the dispersing of particles for optimum load transfer and bulk response and the imaging of the particles in a representative and repeatable manner. In addition, the large surface area interactions tend to cause the particles to agglomerate, creating areas of high stress concentration and a reduction in bulk properties. Three novel characterization techniques will be presented in this article to discuss the effects of ZnO nanoparticle reinforcement of polymer materials and discussion over varying length scales.
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