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Journal of Nanomaterials
Volume 2009, Article ID 140586, 1 page
doi:10.1155/2009/140586

Editorial
Nanocomposites for Engineering Applications

Alan K. T. Lau,1 Debes Bhattacharyya,2 and Carrie H. Y. Ling3

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Centre for Advanced Composite Materials, The University of Auckland,
Auckland 1142, New Zealand
3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA

Correspondence should be addressed to Alan K. T. Lau, mmktlau@polyu.edu.hk

Received 16 July 2009; Accepted 16 July 2009

Copyright © 2009 Alan K. T. Lau et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Advanced polymer-based nanocomposite materials have growth. Furthermore, tissue-engineered organs can be used
gained popularity for wide engineering applications with in testing procedures, reducing or eliminating the need for
improving virtually all types of products and commercial- animal subjects. Nano biotechnology is an interdisciplinary
ization of products that exploit their unique mechanical, field resulting from the interfaces between biotechnology,
thermal, and electrical properties. However, these properties materials science, and nanotechnology.
present new challenges to understand, predict, and manage This special issue “Nanocomposites for Engineering
potential adverse effects, such as toxicity impacts exposure Applications” covers a wide range of papers contributed by
to human lives and environment. Thus, widespread applica- authors around the world on the nanocomposites and their
tions of nanomaterials induce enormous potentials positively structural and mechanical properties. This aim is to provide a
and negatively for human exposure and environmental platform for scientists and researchers to exchange and share
release. Federal budget also emphasizes these implications ideas and findings in the field.
and it is expected that the total annual budget for various
sectors from the National Nanotechnology Initiatives will Alan K. T. Lau
increase substantially in the coming years. Debes Bhattacharyya
The applications of nanostructure resins for biological Carrie H. Y. Ling
applications have been conducted in vitro and in vivo envi-
ronments in research in the past few years. The evaluation Acknowledgments
involved how the resins can bond for biocompatibility to
bone for repair after breaking, teeth for filling, other various The editors would like to express their sincere appreciation
types of tissues for wound healing, and so on. Natural and and thanks to all the authors and co authors for their
synthetic polymeric materials have been found to be suitable scientific contribution to this special issue. We convey our
for tissue engineering applications. For an example, silk (like gratitude to all the reviewers for their time and dedication.
cocoon or spider) fiber /biodegradable polymer biocompos-
ites have been used for tissue engineering (scaffolding) for
bone repair. Many researches have also demonstrated the
use of nano structural materials as reinforcements, such as
nano apatite, nanoclay, and nanofibers (polymer-based or
carbon nanotubes) to enhance the mechanical properties and
thermal stability of bio compatible polymers for artificial
joints and scaffolding. Tissue engineering is one such aspect
that utilizes both engineering and life science disciplines to
either maintain existing tissue structures or to enable tissue
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