  The paper presents a comprehensive analysis of elastic properties of
polystyrene-based nanocomposites filled with different types of inclusions:
small spherical particles (SiO2 and Al2O3), alumosilicates (montmorillonite,
halloysite natural tubules and Mica) and carbon nanofillers (carbon black and
multi-walled carbon nanotubes). Composites were fabricated by melt technology.
The analysis of composite melts showed that the introduction of
Montmorillonite, Multi-walled carbon nanotubes, and Al2O3 particles provided an
increase in melt viscosity by an average of 2 to 5 orders of magnitude over the
pure polystyrene. Block samples of composites with different filler
concentrations were prepared, and their linear and nonlinear elastic properties
were studied. The introduction of more rigid particles led to a more profound
increase in the elastic modulus of the composite, with the highest rise of
about 80% obtained with carbon fillers. Carbon black particles provided also an
enhanced strength at break of about 20% higher than that of pure polystyrene.
  The nonlinear elastic moduli of composites were shown to be more sensitive to
addition of filler particles to the polymer matrix than the linear ones. The
nonlinearity coefficient $\beta$ comprising the combination of linear and
nonlinear elastic moduli of a material demonstrated considerable changes
correlating with changes of the Young's modulus. The absolute value of $\beta$
showed rise in 1.5-1.6 times in the CB- and HNT-containing composites as
compared to that of pure PS. The changes in nonlinear elasticity of fabricated
composites were compared with measurements of the parameters of bulk nonlinear
strain waves in them. Variations of wave velocity and decay decrement
correlated with observed enhancement of materials nonlinearity.
