Zaman, Izzuddin,2025-12-172025-12-172013https://hdl.handle.net/1959.8/1241921 ethesis (233 pages)illustrations (some colour).Includes bibliographic references (leaves 186-215)The development of aerospace and automotive industries requests lightweight, high-performance materials, and polymer nanocomposites are ideal candidates in this case, which is shown by the increasingly more publications in this research field over the past two decades. However, the fundamentals of interface for layered epoxy nanocomposites still remain at a nascent stage. It is still not clear what is the effect of interface on the structure and properties of layered polymer nanocomposites and whether strong interface produced by chemical bonding is indispensable for these nanocomposites. Therefore, different levels of interface for layered polymer nanocomposites were synthesized and investigated in this project, in tandem with fabricating novel materials of cost-effectiveness, high functionality and superior mechanical performance. Two concepts adopted in this study include chemical reaction and molecular entanglements, both of which have produced satisfied interactions between nanolayers and matrix.enEpoxy . Nanocomposite . Clay . GrapheneNanostructured materialsNanotechnologyPolymersthesis