Clay-containing polymeric nanocomposites have now reached a commercially viable stage and are being incorporated in many new applications as described in an 'encyclopaedic compilation'.

Nanocomposites are being described as the ultimate in new materials this decade. They offer potentially outstanding material performance. Clay-containing polymeric nanocomposites have now reached a commercially viable stage and are being incorporated in many new applications.

It is essential that material suppliers, designers and manufacturers understand the potential and the limitations of these new products.

Clay-Containing Polymeric Nanocomposites, published by Rapra, is an encyclopaedic compilation of the material published to date in this exciting new field of polymer science.

This book describes patents, journal and conference articles and the practical experience of the author in developing and working with these new materials.

All of this information is compiled in useful sections by material, processing, properties and applications.

It also includes useful commercial information, such as the names of the companies who are researching and producing nanocomposites.

Clay-containing Polymeric Nanocomposites includes a very useful section on all the different types of nanoparticles currently available and describes the experimental work on incorporating these particles into polymeric matrices.

Clays are at by far the most advanced stages of development, with the advantage of being relatively cheap and abundant materials.

However, they are also very varied in form and chemistry: impurities can lead to degradation of nanocomposites; different types of clay will be less compatible with different types of polymer.

This book describes the work that has been carried out on all of these issues to look for the best clay and compatibilisers for each polymer type.

Most of the research to date has been carried out on thermoplastics with some on thermosets and a limited amount on elastomers.

Toyota and Allied-Signal have worked on polyamides, for example, whilst Dow, Sekisui Chemical and Toyota have all taken out patents relating to polyolefins.

There is extensive data in this text including numerous tables and graphs illustrating property changes, processing attributes, chemical interactions, material types and so forth.

This is a very comprehensive book and represents the forefront of the technology of clay-containing polymeric nanocomposites.

The author, Dr Leszek Utracki is a Senior Research Officer at the National Research Council Canada, Industrial Materials Institute, and past Head of the Industrial Polymers Section at the SPE.

He is the author of over 500 articles, is named on 12 patents and has written or edited 20 books and 38 book chapters.

In 2003, Dr Utracki was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award from the SPE Thermoplastic Materials and Foam Division in recognition of his work in rheology, thermodynamics, blends and nanocomposites.