Polymer- Ceramic composites: A state of art review and future applications

ABSTRACT

The polymer-ceramic composites are best known for their superior fracture toughness, fatigue resistance; wear resistance, higher strength retention at higher temperature, higher strength to weight ratio, higher hardness, thermal response, chemical inertness and corrosion resistance as compared to other composites like: metal matrix composites, ceramic matrix composites and concrete matrix composites. Some studies have reported 3D printing of functional and non-functional prototypes of polymer-ceramic composites for various engineering applications. But hitherto little has been reported on use of 3D printing techniques for rapid tooling (by selecting polymer ceramic composites) in machining of thermoplastic materials. This paper is a state of art review in progress made for various polymer-ceramic processing method, innovations in common ceramics (SiC, Al₂O₃, TiO₂, glass fibre, carbon and their allotropes etc.) reinforced polymeric composites from application prospective. Further in this paper, a case study has been presented for development of polymer-ceramic composites as rapid tooling for machining of thermoplastics.

Keywords:

• Polymer-ceramic composites
• SiC
• Al₂O₃
• TiO₂
• glass fibre

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.