Polymer composites face a wide range of limitations due to the nature of constituent materials, especially matrices. Because of the matrix performance, they suffer from intrinsic brittleness, prone to ...

When high stress is applied to structural materials, catastrophic failure of the material occurs shortly after the initial defect forms due to stress concentration. It is highly desirable to develop a ...

These include synthetic materials — in which a 'soft' polymer ... composites at the micrometre-scale and those with nanoscale reinforcement. In particular, the paucity of structural defects ...