From the smartphone in your pocket to the car parked outside, innovative materials make our modern lives possible. But mind-blowing advances in material science are taking everyday stuff to entirely new levels of strength, intelligence, and capabilities.
Composite Craziness: Incredible Yet Affordable
You have probably heard of composites like carbon fiber used in racing cars and airplanes. But did you know composites are becoming really common in many household products too? Thanks to new low-cost composite materials and manufacturing methods, consumers can now get their hands on incredibly durable yet lightweight gear.
Take something simple, like a golf club shaft. Rather than steel or aluminum, many are now made from layers of fiberglass prepreg composite wrapped around a lightweight foam core. According to the people at Axiom Materials, the strong glass fibers blended with tough resins produce a shaft just as sturdy as metal but way lighter for boosting swing speed.
The same principle extends to many sporting goods, like baseball bats, tennis rackets, bikes, kayaks and more. Composites boost performance while making the equipment easier to transport. Manufacturers are even using composites to produce incredibly tough motor vehicle parts at affordable prices.
Smart Materials That Sense and React
Some of the most fascinating materials popping up in common products are able to sense and respond to their environment in useful ways. For example, you may have seen self-tinting eyeglasses or rearview mirrors that automatically darken to cut glare from bright sunlight.
This fancy capability comes from light-sensitive photochromic materials embedded into the glass or plastic. When exposed to UV rays, molecules in the materials undergo a chemical reaction that causes them to change color and absorb more light. Remove the UV source and they gradually revert to clear again.
Crazy Coatings That Repel Practically Everything
One major challenge for any product is keeping its surfaces clean and free of defects or corrosion. But some new protective coating materials are proving incredibly resistant to fingerprints, smudges, stains, moisture, and scratches.
Most use some form of nanotechnology engineering to create rough textures full of microscopic peaks and valleys. This super-rough topology, along with oleophobic (oil-repelling) chemistry, causes dirt, water, and oils to simply bead up and roll right off the surface.
Consumer products like smartphones, TVs and appliances increasingly feature these self-cleaning nano-coatings. Some even incorporate antimicrobial nanoparticles like silver to kill germs on contact. Cars and buildings may one day have self-cleaning, smudge-proof nano-coated windows and exterior surfaces too.
From Kinetic Energy to Electrical Power
One unique area of materials research aims to capture the kinetic energy all around us and convert it into usable electricity. This energy harvesting could potentially allow our devices, vehicles, and homes to partially recharge themselves just through normal operation and movements.
The key lies in piezoelectric materials, which generate an electrical charge when subjected to mechanical stress like bending or pushing. Researchers are embedding these materials into everything from sneaker insoles that charge a battery with every step to roadways that harvest energy from passing traffic.
Looking ahead, buildings may someday use piezoelectric “shipping skin” facades to convert wind loads and vibrations into supplemental power. Even our blood flows and heartbeats could possibly generate a bit of personal electrical current through embedded piezo nanofibers in clothing. How’s that for recycling energy?
Conclusion
As these examples show, material science has become the unseen driving force behind countless mind-blowing innovations affecting our everyday lives. And this is just the beginning; who knows what sort of fantastic smart, self-healing, energy-harvesting materials await in our future? One thing is for sure, the “stuff” we’re surrounded by has never been smarter or more capable.
