Nano was not a buzzword in the 1990s. The concept of nano is not really new, nor was it then to researchers in the colloids, ceramic, polymer crystallinity, or microscopy fields. However, three researchers with extensive experience in these classical fields were rapidly becoming pioneers in the new field of nanotechnology during the 1990s. Emmanuel Giannelis, Gary Beal and Bert Powell, as well as others, were among the first scientists to demonstrate the unique set of properties which could be derived from polymer-clay nanocomposites. The roots of this field had its origin in work during the 1950s by Blumstein and later in the 1980s by companies such as Showa Denko, Dupont, GE and Toyota, where clays were used in thermoplastic composites. The Giannelis, Beal, Powell team was a significant contributor to the realization that these nanocomposites had a range of very unique properties. One of these unique properties was the reduced flammability. This presentation will review the important fundamental scientific contributions and challenges that this team addressed while working with NIST, which aided in understanding this important new property. Specificly, measurement challenges, which turned out to be nearly universally applicable to all other polymer nanocomposites, and which helped pave the way for other researchers to rapidly develop other unique nanocomposite materials, such as those based on silica, carbon and cellulose.

Flammability of polymer nanocomposites

247th National Meeting (2014)

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