Adaptive materials

“Key technology for product intelligence”

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■  Better known as “Intelligent materials and structures”, adaptive materials are defined as materials with intrinsic functions that allow them behave as a sensor and actuator, just like a processor.

■  On the scale of intelligence of materials and materials-systems, we have “sensitive” materials, “active” materials and “adaptive” materials. Although discussions between experts exist on the definitions of each of these “functional” materials, we will say that adaptive materials are those that have the particularity of being able to spontaneously modify their physical properties (shape, colour, conductivity, visco-elasticity, absorption, etc.); faced with natural or provoked stimuli, these materials react and adapt their response.

■  Above and beyond semantic discussions, what is important for industrial players today is to measure the challenges and anticipate development of these new materials, whether piezo-electric, with shape memory, magnetostrictive, electrorheological fluids, conducting polymers, with variable transparent or even biomimetic.

■  A few examples can already be given, which reveal both the challenges and scope of current or potential applications of adaptive materials (aeronautics, automobile, space and defence, building, tools, bio-medical, consumer products). The Transport and Civil Engineering industries will soon have a self-repairing polymer which will cast itself off as soon as a crack in the structure is detected; will aircraft and works of art be self-controlled then?

■  Car bumpers will adopt their original shape simply by heating the damaged part.

■  Nano-mechanics has become a reality, and future micro-actuators will be made with shape memory alloys arranged in ultra-thin layers on a silicon substrate.

■  Lastly, thermo-sensitive polymers are already used in a fun and educational way in children’s toothbrushes to teach them to brush their teeth for more than two minutes, until it changes colour. Soon, using the same technique, the white lines on our motorways will change colour to inform us of the imminent formation of ice. The consumer segment is also starting to discover adaptive materials.

■  The market of shape memory polymers alone, which represented less than 100 million French Francs in 1990, is close to 12 billion in 2000. Every other day, a patent to secure an application is filed in the world.

■  In view of this abundance of innovations (the interest of which is variable), the market of which is forecast to grow 20% per year in the next five years, speciality chemists and their industrial partners/clients have to get organised in order to obtain reliable technical and economic information. Many applications of these adaptive materials remain to be discovered and will come to light from information and technology exchange between the different players.

■  In order to contribute to this technical, industrial and economic challenge, Innovation 128 has been proposing, since 1997, a Technological Watch Programme, TechWatch, which intends to provide information validated by the best experts.

Main themes

■  Materials and material-systems and their implementation processes:

  • shape memory alloys and polymers
  • piezo ceramics and polymers
  • electrical
  • magneto-restrictive materials
  • conducting polymers
  • biomimetic materials
  • electro-chromic, photo-chromic and thermo-chromic materials
  • adaptive fluids (electro and magnetorheological)
  • optical fibres for intelligent structures
  • micro-systems for intelligent structures
  • artificial muscles and polymer gels
  • miscellaneous

■  Markets and applications:

  • land transport (automobile and rail)
  • construction and civil engineering
  • biomedical (implants, non-invasive surgery)
  • electro-technical
  • defence
  • consumer products