Nanocomposites are materials that are created by introducing nanoparticulates into a macroscopic sample material. This is part of the growing field of nanotechnology. The nanomaterials tend to drastically add to the electrical and thermal conductivity as well as to the mechanical strength properties of the original material. In general, the nano substance used are carbon nanotubes and they are dispersed into the other composite materials during processing. The percentage by weight of the nanomaterials introduced is able to remain very low (on the order of .5% - 5%) due to the incredibly high surface area to volume ratio of the particles. Much research is going in to developing more efficient combinations of materials.

Nanotechnology