On nanocomposite toughness

The structural toughness arising from conventional energy dissipation mechanisms has the potential to be much more significant in nanocomposites than in composites containing conventional micron-size fibers. This is illustrated and discussed here using nanotube pull-out as an example of such dissipation. While somewhat challenging conventional scaling arguments, this appears to concur with current experimental observations. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.