A brief review on the influences of nanotubes' entanglement and waviness on the mechanical behaviors of CNTR polymer nanocomposites

Invention of carbon nanotube (CNT) in the 1990s introduced a new class of materials whose extraordinary mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties seemed appealing enough to the research community to devote their time and effort for the purpose of analyzing composite materials reinforced by CNTs. Particularly, the marvelous stiffness of CNTs has made it possible to reach a high-modulus composite once such a nanomaterial is dispersed into various types of matrices. Among all of these products, CNT-reinforced (CNTR) polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) are used more than the others due to their incredible specific stiffness and fracture toughness. Although PNCs can bring a lot for the designer due to their inherent merits, it must be pointed out that some practical phenomena take place in the microstructure of such advanced materials whose neglecting can be resulted in negative outcomes. Motivated by this reality and based upon the authors broad researches in this area, present review is organized to show how can the mechanical behaviors of PNCs be affected by entanglement of the CNTs inside the inclusions and their wavy shape.