Recent advances of polymer nanocomposites in emerging applications

Renewed interest in polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) has garnered significant impact towards next-generation hybrid materials. Owing to the outstanding mechanical, thermal, electrical, and chemical properties of PNCs, the integration of various nanoparticles or other emerging nanofillers into polymer matrices renders their applicability. This review outlines recent progress and a comprehensive overview across multidisciplinary fields of chemistry and physics concepts including surface chemistry and polymer science, emphasizing their enhanced photophysical performance over traditional composites. To examine their promising physicochemical nature, several fabrication techniques are outlined: in situ polymerization, solution blending, melt compounding, and electrospinning. In addition, state-of-the-art characterization tools that cover in situ or operando, including X-ray diffraction, neutron scattering, and various spectroscopic methods, are summarized for nanoscale structures and dynamics interpretation. Driven by stringent requirements for improved interfacial bonding and nanofiller dispersion, recent advancements in computational techniques such as density functional theory (DFT) in combination with machine learning (ML) are introduced to achieve high accuracy in terms of polymer structure predictive design. The multitude of aspects of PNCs embarked on diverse applications spanning from energy sector (fuel cells, solar cells, batteries, and supercapacitors), petroleum engineering (enhanced oil recovery), environmental fields (wastewater treatment via photocatalysis), biomedicine (drug delivery), and in biosensors (high-precision volatile analytes). This review highlights the vast potential of PNCs in addressing technological challenges such as structural complexity and engineering trade-offs. Moreover, several profound future research directions, including scalable fabrication and multifunctional material design are discussed.