Nanofibrillar polymer–polymer and single polymer composites via the “converting instead of adding” concept – Examples of true polymer nanocomposite

The review deals with the reasons for the drastic difference between the theoretically derived expectations regarding the mechanical properties of polymer nanocomposites and the experimentally obtained results. It is assumed that the most probable reason is the fact that we hardly deal with true nanocomposites because in the composites prepared via blending of polymer matrix with the reinforcing nano-size material the reinforcing elements are not the single nanoparticles but their aggregates with sizes in the micrometer range. This situation is due to the fact that currently there are not effective techniques for proper dispersion of nanomaterials into polymer matrix. The solution suggested is in avoiding the dispersion step in the composite preparation as the “concept of converting instead of adding” does. Two examples of true polymer nanocomposites – the nanofibrillar polymer–polymer and the nanofibrillar single polymer composites – are described.