Next-Generation Functional Polymers and Advanced Polymer Composites: From Materials Design to Mechanical, Tribological and Rheological Performance
Aims and Scope
Functional polymers and their composites have emerged as a cornerstone of modern materials engineering, enabling lightweight, tailorable, and multifunctional solutions across the automotive, aerospace, sports, defense, biomedical, and infrastructure sectors. The ability to engineer polymer matrices with reinforcing fibers, particulate fillers, and stimuli-responsive additives has opened new frontiers in mechanical performance, wear resistance, impact protection, and processability.
Despite significant progress, several challenges remain unresolved: optimizing fiber- matrix interfacial bonding in fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs), understanding the complex rheological behavior that governs processing and performance, harnessing shear-thickening fluids (STFs) for adaptive impact and damping applications, and advancing sustainable natural fiber composites as viable alternatives to synthetic reinforcements. Addressing these gaps demands a dedicated platform that consolidates cutting-edge research, encourages cross-disciplinary dialogue, and accelerates translation from laboratory findings to industrial application.
This Special Issue is therefore proposed to bring together original research, critical reviews, and application-driven studies that advance the science and engineering of functional polymers and their composites, with a particular focus on mechanical and tribological performance, rheological characterization, and sustainable reinforcement strategies.