Anirradiationgraftingmethodwasappliedforthemodificationofnanoparticlessothatthelattercanbeaddedtopolymericmaterialsforimprovingtheirmechanicalperformanceusingexistingcompoundingtechniques.Thefollowingitemsarediscussedinthispaper:(a)chemicalinteractionbetweenthegraftingmonomersandthenanoparticlesduringirradiation,(b)propertiesincludingmodulus,yieldstrength,impactstrengthandfracturetoughnessoftheresultantcomposites,and(c)possiblemorphologicalchangesinducedbytheadditionofnanoparticles.Throughirradiationgraftingpolymerization,nanoparticleagglomeratesturnintoanano-compositemicrostructure(comprisedofthenanoparticlesandthegrafted,homopolymerizedsecondarypolymer),whichinturnbuildsupastronginterfacialinteractionwiththesurrounding,primarypolymericmatrixduringthesubsequentmixingprocedure.Duetothefactthatdifferentgraftingpolymersbroughtaboutdifferentnanoparticle/matrixinterfacialfeatures,microstructuresandpropertiesoftheultimatecompositescouldthusbetailored.Itwasfoundthatthereinforcingandtougheningeffectsofthenanoparticlesonthepolymermatrixcanbefullybroughtintoplayataratherlowfillerloadingincomparisontoconventionalparticulatefilledcomposites.
