1. Smart Materials

2. What is a Smart Material?
Basically it’s a material that reacts quickly to a stimulus in a specific manner.
The change in the material can also be reversible, as a change in stimulus can bring the material back to its previous state.

3. Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs)
Metals that exhibit pseudo-elasticity and the “Shape Memory Effect”
The basic principle behind SMAs is that a solid state phase change occurs in these materials.
They switch between states of Austenite and Martensite.

4. Example of SMA

5. Appplications of SMAs Popular SMAs are NiTi, CuZnAl, and CuAlNi
Applications include:
Aeronautical
Making flexible wings using shape memory wires
Medicine
Bone plates made of NiTi
Bioengineering
Muscle wires that can mimic human movement

6. Smart Gels
A smart gel is a material that expands or contracts in response to external stimuli.
A smart gel consists of fluid that exists in a matrix of polymer(s).
Stimulus can include
Light
Magnetic pH
Temperature
Electrical
Mechanical
Stimulus will alter the polymer that makes it more or less hydrophillic.

7. Tanaka experiment
Modeled after T. Tanaka, Science 19 November 1999: Vol no. 5444, pp

8. Applications of Smart Gels
Medical
Drug release
Organ replacement
Muscle replication
Industrial
Shake gels
Shock absorbers

9. Rheological Materials
Material that can change its physical state very quickly in response to a stimulus
Stimulus include
Electrical
Magnetic
Ferromagnets
Magnetic field aligns ferromagnetic molecules in order in order to achieve solid state structure
Nanoparticles reduce IUT effect (In Use Thickening)

10. Example of Magnetic Field on Rheological Material

11. Applications of Rheological Materials
MR materials
Structural Support
Dampers to minimize vibrational shock from wind and seismic activity.
Industrial
Break fluids
Shock absorbers

12. Magnetostrictive materials
Material that stretches or shrinks when a magnetic field is applied.
Conversely, when a mechanical force is applied on the material, a magnetic field is induced.
Ferromagnets
Magnetic field can be used to create an electric current

13. Applications of Magnetorestrictive Materials
More efficient fuel injection system
Specific amounts of fuel
Higher frequency

14. Fullerenes
A fullerene is any series of hollow carbon molecules that form either a closed cage, as in a buckyball, or a cylinder, like a carbon nanotube.
Most researched/utilized fullerene is the carbon-60 molecule (truncated icosaheedron)
Three nanotubes can be made by varying the chiral angle.
Arm-chair
Zig-zag
Chiral
Chiral angle determines conductivity

15. Applications of fullerenes
Superconductors
By doping fullerenes with three variable atoms, a superconducting state can be achieved.
Medical
Atoms can be trapped in a buckyball, in order to create a biological sponge.
HIV protease inhibitor
A buckyball can be inserted in the HIV protease active site in order to stop replication.