Surendran Sankunny

Composite materials are increasingly being used as an accepted alternative to traditional structural materials throughout the globe for various engineering applications. Because of their superior properties and flexibility, these materials are beginning to find innumerable applications replacing existing materials, especially in high-performance engineering domains. The electrospinning process adds a further dimension to enhance the properties of the composite material family by incorporating fibers at their microscale to even sub-nanoscale, enabling the development of advanced composites with enhanced properties. Over the past decades, much research work has understandably been done on these exciting materials. This paper aims to comprehensively map some of the trends in electrospun nanofiber interleaved laminated composite development, marking the milestones achieved and challenges faced. A brief review of the potential applications for these materials will also be put forward in the research outlook for these advanced nanoengineered composites.

This review paper initially summarizes the latest developments in impact testing on polymer matrix composites collating the various analytical, numerical, and experimental studies performed since the year 2000. Subsequently, the scientific literature investigating nanofiller reinforced polymer composite matrices as well as self-healing polymer matrix composites by incorporating core-shell nanofibers is reviewed in-depth to provide a perspective on some novel advances in nanotechnology that have led to composite developments. Through this review, researchers can gain a representative idea of the state of the art in nanotechnology for polymer matrix composite engineering, providing a platform for further study of this increasingly industrially significant material, and to address the challenges in developing the next generation of advanced, high-performance materials.