Interpenetrating Composites with Enhanced Stiffness, Desired Poisson’s Ratio and Superior Conductivity

Fibre matrix debonding, fibre pullout, delamination and mechanical anisotropy are the main common disadvantages of most fibre-reinforced composites. Interpenetrating phase composites (IPCs), however, do not have these problems because both their matrix material and their reinforcement fibre materials are self-connected networks, and interpenetrate each other. Moreover, IPCs could be designed to have an almost isotropic Young’s modulus much larger than the Voigt limit, and a Poisson’s at a desired value (i.e. positive, or negative or zero). In addition, they could have an isotropic thermal or electrical conductivity very close to the theoretical upper limit (i.e. the Hashin—Shtrikman’s upper limit). This paper will introduce the relevant theoretical, simulation and experimental results on the elastic properties and thermal/electrical conductivities of some IPCs and compare their properties with those of other types of composites.