RESEARCH PROGRESS IN CREEP OF POLYMER NANOCOMPOSITES

Creep is one of themost critical behaviours for thermoplastics that poor creepresistance are considered a deficiency for further expansion ofapplications of these materials. Our preliminary studies exploredthat very low content of inorganic nanoparticles couldsignificantly reduce the creep strain of thermoplastics. Due tothe low filler content of nanoparticles, the improvements instiffness and strength are not as attractive as those anelasticproperties, e.g. creep and fatigue, which may be stronglyinfluenced by nano-fillers. Nanoparticles may restrict theslippage, reorientation and motion of polymer chains. In this way,the nanoparticles influence the stress transfer, which finallyresults in the improvement observed. Moreover, it was found thatcreep tests can provide more information to changes ofinteractions of nanoscale building-blocks in a hierarchicallystructured nanocomposite. This review presents the researchprogress on creep of polymer nanocomposites. It summarizes somefactors such as the type, morphology and content of nanoparticles,stress level and temperature for influencing the creep performanceof thermoplastic polymers. Second, some commonly used creepmodeling approaches were introduced to simulate and predict thecreep behavior of nanocomposites. Finally, some future developmenttrends are also discussed.