New technologies demand new materials. Polymer composites, with their wide range of possible fillers and polymers, open the way to an enormous range of materials with differing chemical, physical, and mechanical properties. The ultimate goal of polymer composite research is to formulate procedures that will lead to the design of composites with preset, i.e. specified, properties.
Based on many years' experience in the field, the authors prepare the way towards just such a design procedure. The key element is the analysis and classification of the state of the filler-polymer interfaces...