Smart/reflective materials

Smart materials are materials that have one or more properties that can be significantly changed in a controlled fashion by exposure to light,  temperature, electric current, stress, and other external stimuli.

The large majority of apllicable materials are “chromics” or color changing materials.  However these materials really do not change color, they simply modify their optical properties by reflecting or absorbing or scattering, different wavelengths of light. Thereby creating the effect of changing colors.

• photochromics -change color when exposed to light
• thermochromics- changes color due to changes in termperture
• electrochromics – changes color when a voltage is applied (LCD’s are a related technology)
• mechanochromics – changes color due to applied stress
• chemochromics- changes color when exposed to certain chemicals

Below are two examples of materials that change color when exposed to different tempertures. Think “hypercolor shirts” if you guys remember those.  This material could be applied to show where people have touched or walked or made contact with a surface, it fades away as the temperture  cools back down.

 

Dichroic glass is another cool/smart material.  It changes color depending upon the view. On one side it may reflect blue light waves to your eye, while on another it may reflect gold light waves, while yet  another view could be purple, etc. This allows it to seemingly be a diferent color depending upon your view of the material. 

 

Dichroic glass could also be used to filter only a certain color of light through to a certain area.  This is the same technology as “transition” sunglasses.

 

Similarly there is radiant color film which can be applied to a surface.  The film changes color depending upon the vantage point.  For example, the same surface may appear a vibrant blue, yellow or red, depending on the viewer’s angle.

 

 View control film is also interesting.  As its name implies, it controls a view by obscuring the image behind it, only clearly showing when viewed from a pre-determined vantage point.

 

 View directional film is film that is seen from a certin angle, yet seems to dissappear (into a black surface, it is not a transparent material). The film itself is meant to be seen and then be hidden, revealing another surface or object in front of the film. 

 

Liquid Crystal technology can also be applied to a surface or object.  When electrically charged it can assemble into different color schemes, shapes, and forms.

The other category of Smart Materials are energy exchanging materials.  That is an energy is inputted into the material, and a different energy is the ouput.  Examples are LEDs (Light Emmitting Diodes), Photovoltaics (materials and devices that convert light energy into a mechanical or electrical energy, think solar power),  thermo electrics, memory shape alloys, etc.

While fiber-optics are not really a smart material, they are often grouped with them as it is an innovative material that is often utiized in conjuction with “smart materials”.

LED and fiber optic cloth, chair and wall:

 

 

 

LED TILES

 Another type is a responsive actuated sensory wall. When stress is applied (a touch to the surface) the wall reacts by either moving or changing color, or both.

 

Memory materials or metals have the ability to “remember” their shape either when a electric voltage is appplied and\or when a certain temperature is reached. The material can change into many different programmed forms and then back again, depending on the specific temperature or current applied.

 

Well, that about sums up what I have found for smart materials, mainly from  the book “Smart Materials and Technologies” and from the internet.  If I discover anything else I will post to the blog.