“…Multicomponent, composites materials have been commonplace in engineering of materials for ages; the simplest and most common application being the use of cheap, abundant filler 2 to lower the quantity of a more expensive component, without a significant loss in the material's functional properties. Toyota's discovery that incorporating <10% w/w clay in a nylon-6 blend resulted in a dramatic increase in the mechanical and thermal properties of the resulting material 3 , led to polymer nanocomposite materials becoming a topic of interest in scientific circles as advanced functional materials 4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23 . Today, numerous applications for polymer nanocomposites exist 24,25,26,27,28 , for example as lightweight materials, gas barriers, packaging materials, flame retardants, in insulation, drug delivery, and catalysis.…”