Smart manufacturing of nanocomposites: Digital twins, process engineering, and translational industrialization

Kalpana Eluri, Gayathri Krishnakumar, Karthikeyan Elumalai

Carbon nanotubes, graphene derivatives, MXenes, metal oxides, nanocellulose, and hybrid nanofillers exhibit outstanding reinforcement properties, such as mechanical strength, electrical conductivity, thermal transport, barrier properties, and multifunctionality, in thermoplastic and thermosetting matrices. However, the ability to produce these materials on an industrial scale is still hindered by many challenges, such as the variability of the raw materials, degradation of the properties when the materials agglomerate, high-throughput processing challenges due to the instability of the dispersion, high energy consumption of dispersion processes, limited window of manufacturability, quality control requirements, recycling limitations, and uncertainty regarding regulatory requirements. This review introduces a manufacturing framework to translate nanocomposites on the basis of a process-driven and systems engineering approach rather than just a material design perspective. This review addresses the processing methods that can be used on a large scale, such as melt compounding, reactive extrusion, solution-assisted processing, additively manufactured components, and roll-to-roll fabrication, and explores the dispersion behaviour, interphase evolution, orientation of the fillers, percolation behaviour, formation of defects, and functional reproducibility under different processing conditions. Special emphasis is placed on the coupled relationships between transport phenomena, rheological evolution, and multiscale structural organization, which are responsible for manufacturing scalability and deployment readiness. Emerging Industry 4.0 technologies, such as process analytical technologies (PATs), inline metrology, machine learning, digital twins, and autonomous process control, have been tested for their potential to predict and control important manufacturing metrics, such as dispersion quality, rheological behavior, filler-network formation, defect occurrence, and process consistency, through real-time data integration and adaptive feedback systems. The review also incorporates technoeconomic analysis, life cycle assessment, circular manufacturing approaches, and regulatory aspects to assess industrial feasibility for various application fields, such as aerospace, electronics, energy, biomedical, and multifunctional coatings. Finally, future directions include designs for manufacturing compatible nanomaterials, predictive multiscale modelling, certification structures enabled by digital, autonomous production systems, and sustainable industrial ecosystems. This review offers a complete overview of the challenges of scaling up the industrialization of advanced nanocomposite materials to be reproducible and economically viable while maintaining nanomaterial engineering, manufacturing science, digitalization, and lifecycle sustainability.