Smart materials future

How far can smart materials go Futuristic depictions such as in the 1991 film Terminator 2 have androids made of shape-changing metal that can quickly flow and set into any desired form. A more realistic vision for the future of smart materials and systems can be viewed by observing nature. Organisms move, adapt, and evolve, and they are made of materials that are complex but have been studied by biologists for decades. 

Like most other smart materials, smart hydrogels are still at a very early stage of development. Scientists often have only minimal understanding of the processes hy which these materials work. As a result, widespread commercial applications may still he many years in the future. 

As exciting as nanomaterials may he for many researchers, smart materials may present an even more promising future. With the ability to sense changes in the environment around them, analyze those changes, and then develop appropriate responses, smart materials have some of the fundamental qualities that people associate with "life. Will smart materials someday act so much like living materials that the difference between "life and "nonlife becomes unclear As smart materials become smarter, people wonder. 

Akhras, G. 2000. Smart materials and smart systems for the future. Canadian Military Journal Autumn 25-31. 

How Did We Get Here Evolution and Revolution A View of the Future From Inert Polymers to Active Materials to Smart Systems Active Materials Smart Materials Materials with a Memory... 

We are now in a position to investigate a question that will be assessed throughout this textbook What is the relationship between the microstructure of a material, and its overall properties If our world wishes to stay on our current path of unprecedented growth in areas of electronics, building materials, homeland security devices, and future smart materials, it is essential that we become familiar with the properties of individual classes of materials and current applications. Only then will we be able to extrapolate these properties into new and exciting applications for the future. 

Grafted Polysaccharides Smart Materials of the Future, Their Synthesis and Applications... 

The aforementioned plastics will be described in this book. Unusual testing methods are needed to characterize the structure and behavior of these multifunctional active materials used in numerous domains. Most of these materials conform to the concept of smart materials and have a great future. 

Beyond the ongoing research on the previously described smart materials, there are a few new innovative materials. Whether they are already investigated basically, recent material-related publications show an outstanding potential for them to serve as actuator materials in the future. 

Chemists have already discovered a large number of assembly methods and found effective organization methods for independent molecules. This chemistry has to be adapted, at least in part, in order to succeed in the assembly of nanoobjects. Thus these materials can be prepared using chemical methods, present or future, which allow die assembly of nanoobjects and at the same time access to a device in the form of a coating, a film, a fiber, a matrix or a porous solid. The preparation of smart materials moreover implies the control of the organization of several properties at the core of the material. This aspect constitutes an essential field of research for the future of the nanosciences. 

Smart materials sense, react and adopt themselves to environmental conditions or to external and environmental stimuli. A few examples of interesting topics for the future are highlighted in the sections below. 

They can be used for the design of the future applications i.e., as smart materials, to produce climate walls to regulate internal temperature, in solar energy generation systems, in activated glazing systems which can become transparent or opaque, and to produce earthquake-proof buildings. 

Nanofibers are easy to incorporate with other nanomaterials and can be easily functionalized. Therefore, nanofibers could become the basis of smart materials that are increasing in demand from the industrial side. The application of electrospun nanofibers in higher volumes has a potential future in the composites industry. 

Martin, W.E. Drechsler, K. Smart Materials and Structures - Present State and Future Trends. Technische Niederschrift der Messerschmidt-Bolkow-Blohm GmbH, Miinchen (1990)... 

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