Smart Materials and It’s Applications

ABSTRACT

Smart or intelligent materials are materials that have the intrinsic and extrinsic capabilities, first, to respond to stimuli and environmental changes and, second, to activate their functions according to these changes. The stimuli could originate internally or externally. Since its beginnings, materials science has undergone a distinct evolution: from the use of inert structural materials to materials built for a particular function, to active or adaptive materials, and finally to smart materials with more acute recognition, discrimination and reaction capabilities. To encompass this last transformation, new materials and alloys have to satisfy a number of fundamental specifications. Smart materials can come in a variety of sizes, shapes, compounds, and functions. But what they all share— indeed what makes them “smart”—is their ability to adapt to changing conditions. Smart materials are the ultimate shape shifters. They can also alter their physical form, monitor their environment, and even diagnose their own internal conditions. They can also do all of this while intelligently interacting with the objects and people around them. The components of the smart materials revolution have been finding their way out of the labs and into industrial applications for the past decade.