UPDATING DEFINITIONS AND CONCEPTS IN THE DISCIPLINE OF COMPOSITE MATERIALS

摘要

Composite materials have aroused a keen interest amongst academicians, researchers, technologists, and entrepreneurs. As a result, a profuse variety of processes and materials used for their production has been reported as scholarly articles either in specialized journals or more general materials science and engineering publications. Concurrently, partly because of the advent of nanoscience and nanotechnology and by the green materials and processes approach, numerous new terms and concepts have emerged. And while the current definition of composites is restricted to processes where no dissolution occurs, new reports suggest the formation of new phases through dissolution processes or chemical reactions, giving place to in situ formed phases. Also, from the mechanical behavior standpoint, the guest phase in a matrix was always considered a "reinforcing phase" while there are phases which confer thermal or functional properties. In this contribution, the definition of composite materials is reviewed and some current terms are presented.