why the hardness can be further enhanced in the nanocomposite coating design even though the Nano crystalline size is below 10 nm ?
When you say nano crystalline size, are you talking about the nanofiller size?
In nanocomposites, the hardness as well the mechanical properties depend on not only the size of nanofiller but several other parameters like the intrinsic properties of matrix and fillers, shape and amount, of nanofiller. The interaction between the nanofillers and matrix is also an important parameter.
the hardness of the composites is increased because the polymer matrix adsorbs on the surface of the fillers (as a monomolecular layer) and is not as flexible any more but stiff.
You can find somethig about this here:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229816762_Electrical_conductivity_in_heterogeneous_polymer_systems._V_%281%29_Further_experimental_evidence_for_a_phase_transition_at_the_critical_volume_concentration
and in other of my publications. Don't worry about finding all kind of articles about "conductive" stuff, the dispersion mechanism of submicron particles in polymer matrix and the resulting structures are independant of what nature the fillers are.
Apart from that I would like to mention that I would not expect you can disperse the fillers to effectively 10 nm sized separated particles, depending on the molecular weight of your matrix polymer, the effective particle size will be between 50 and 100 nm.
Article Electrical conductivity in heterogeneous polymer systems. V ...
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