Lightweight Composites

Morphology change due to addition of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC)-Glass fiber/epoxy (left) vs.Glass fiber/epoxy with 0.15 wt% CNC (right)

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Lightweight structures increase fuel efficiency and reduce CO₂ emission in automotive and marine industries. Scalable manufacturing of lightweight composites by integrating nanotechnology and large scale manufacturing is a focus in PCAM lab. We investigate the interaction between mico/nano reinforcements coexisting in polymer composites and the potential of using this synergy to remove a part of heavier components (such as glass fiber) in composites without any penalty on performance.