Smart and Modern Materials

Smart and Modern Materials

• Smart and modern materials include thermochromic materials, polymorphs, shape memory alloys (SMA), and shape memory polymers.
• The key properties of common smart and modern materials are important to understand.

What Are Smart and Modern Materials?

• "Smart and modern materials" is a general term for various materials with properties that change based on environmental conditions like light, temperature, or movement.
• They are designed and manufactured through scientific discoveries to perform specific functions.
• These materials react independently.
• Some materials seem to have a "memory," deforming and returning to their original shape under certain conditions, such as heat from an electrical current.
• Shape memory alloys rely on heat from an electrical current, while shape memory polymers rely on the effect of heat.
• Modern materials are manufactured by changing the structure at a molecular level or by using nanoparticles, such as super strong graphene or hydrophobic surfaces that repel water.
• Some smart and modern materials are inspired by nature, which is called biomimicry.

Design in Action

• Smart and modern materials have many applications in health and medicine.
• A "stent" is a small mesh tube made from a shape memory alloy.
• Stents are inserted into damaged blood vessels to strengthen them or keep them from collapsing.
• The stent is inserted cold and expands to the desired size using the patient's body heat.