Nanostructured Material Engineering for Advanced Automotive Lightweight Upgrade

Abstract

Driven by the dual imperatives of environmental protection and performance enhancement, the automotive industry has introduced new priorities for lightweight design in new energy vehicles. Automotive lightweight materials face the main challenges of uniform dispersion of the nanoparticles, scalable and economical manufacturing processes, dependable and lasting multi-material integration, and durability under service conditions. This review investigates the use of nanomaterials in lightweighting automotive applications by surveying the four main classes of carbon, ceramic, silicon, and polymer nanocomposites and evaluating their synthesis routes, interfacial engineering, and performance metrics. A mixed approach using literature review and specific case studies was applied to compare the mechanical properties, dispersion stability, and scale up difficulties of different nanofiller systems. Significant works on carbon nanotube and graphene reinforced carbon fibre composites, alumina nanocoated, high aspect ratio silicon carbide nanowires, and nano-clay enhanced polymers were studied to calculate mass loss, stiffness loss, and loss of durability in the body, chassis, and interior components. The obtained results revealed that the incorporation of nanomaterials enables component weight reductions of 10 to 60% while continuing to provide good structural strength, stiffness, and corrosion or wear resistance. Problems with nanoscale particle agglomeration, economic mass production, and safety standardization were noted. The review provided final remarks on optimizing dispersion techniques to minimize material and process expenditure, effectively accelerating the use of nanotechnology in automotive.