I have been looking at ways of using modern materials in crafting, so using tranditional techniques to make products out of materials that would never normally be used, and I have come across the phrase 'smart materials' a number of times.
"Smart materials are materials that have one or more properties that can be significantly changed in a controlled fashion by external stimuli, such as stress, temperature, moisture, pH, electric or magnetic fields."
Examples of Smart Materials
Piezoelectric materials
These materials can produce a voltage when stress is applied, the reverse is also true and so therefore they can be made to bend, expand or contract when a voltage is applied.
Shape memory alloys and shape memory polymers
Temperature changes or stress changes can cause deformations in these materials that can be induced and recovered.
Magnetostrictive materials
Magnetic fields can alter the shape of these materials and also their behavious in relation to mechanical stress.
Magnetic shape memory alloys
These materials alter in response to a significant change in the magnetic field.
pH-sensitive polymers
These materials trasform when the pH of their environment changes.
Temperature-responsive polymers
These materials are effected by changes in temperature.
Halochromic materials
These can change colour depending on a change in acidity.
Chromogenic systems
These materials can change colour in response to electrical, optical or thermal changes.
Photomechanical materials
These materials can actually change their shape under exposure to light.
Self-healing materials
These materials can repair themselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment