MOLECULAR COMPOSITES - POTENTIAL 3RD-GENERATION POLYMERS FOR AEROSPACE APPLICATIONS

Thermoplastics, thermosets and elastomers are first-generation polymer s, and fibre-reinforced plastics are second-generation polymers. Molec ular composites are emerging as the third-generation polymers; they ar e defined as homogeneous synergistic composites of molecularly dispers ed intrinsically rigid and flexible coil macromolecules, conceptually similar to fibre-reinforced plastic, except that the flexible coil pol ymer is molecularly reinforced by the rigid macromolecule. In this stu dy, fundamentals and possible applications of these materials for vibr o-acoustically stable structures and low-Earth-orbit spacecraft are di scussed. A molecular theory of solid-state thermodynamics and statisti cal mechanics for molecular composites is also developed.