Why was aluminum once more valuable than gold? Why are some buildings built on giant springs and where can they be found? Why does a nuclear waste remain hazardous for thousands of years? In this book, you will learn about the chemical and physical changes that can occur in materials, including chemical and metal reactions, the effect of substances on materials, and the various types of physical changes and their causes. Find out what a huge part the material world plays in your life! Each book in the 'Material World' series looks at a key area of materials science, covering subjects such as states of matter, material characteristics and behavior, the uses of different materials, and the technology used to make new materials or change existing ones for new purposes.

Learn how materials change when they're affected by such things as heat and cold temperatures. Includes easy experiments that show how to change materials using common household items.

A unique overview of the manufacture of and applications for materials nanoarchitectonics, placing otherwise hard-to-find information in context. Edited by highly respected researchers from the most renowned materials science institute in Japan, the first part of this volume focuses on the fabrication and characterization of zero to three-dimensional nanomaterials, while the second part presents already existing as well as emerging applications in physics, chemistry, biology, and biomedicine.

Nanotube Superfiber Materials refers to different forms of macroscale materials with unique properties constructed from carbon nanotubes. These materials include nanotube arrays, ribbons, scrolls, yarn, braid, and sheets. Nanotube materials are in the early stage of development and this is the first dedicated book on the subject. Transitioning from molecules to materials is a breakthrough that will positively impact almost all industries and areas of society. Key properties of superfiber materials are high flexibility and fatigue resistance, high energy absorption, high strength, good electrical conductivity, high maximum current density, reduced skin and proximity effects, high thermal conductivity, lightweight, good field emission, piezoresistive, magnetoresistive, thermoelectric, and other properties. These properties will open up the door to dozens of applications including replacing copper wire for power conduction, EMI shielding, coax cable, carbon biofiber, bullet-proof vests, impact resistant glass, wearable antennas, biomedical microdevices, biosensors, self-sensing composites, supercapacitors, superinductors, hybrid superconductor, reinforced elastomers, nerve scaffolding, energy storage, and many others. The scope of the book covers three main areas: Part I: Processing; Part II: Properties; and Part III: Applications. Processing involves nanotube synthesis and macro scale material formation methods. Properties covers the mechanical, electrical, chemical and other properties of nanotubes and macroscale materials. Different approaches to growing high quality long nanotubes and spinning the nanotubes into yarn are explained in detail. The best ideas are collected from all around the world including commercial approaches. Applications of nanotube superfiber cover a huge field and provides a broad survey of uses. The book gives a broad overview starting from bioelectronics to carbon industrial machines. - First book to explore the production and applications of macro-scale materials made from nano-scale particles - Sets out the processes for producing macro-scale materials from carbon nanotubes, and describes the unique properties of these materials - Potential applications for CNT fiber/yarn include replacing copper wire for power conduction, EMI shielding, coax cable, carbon biofiber, bullet-proof vests, impact resistant glass, wearable antennas, biomedical microdevices, biosensors, self-sensing composites, supercapacitors, superinductors, hybrid superconductor, reinforced elastomers, nerve scaffolding, energy storage, and many others

Today, architects and designers are beginning to look toward developments in new "smart" or "intelligent" materials and technologies for solutions to long-standing problems in building design. However, these new materials have so far been applied in a diverse but largely idiosyncratic nature, because relatively few architects have access to information about the types or properties of these new materials or technologies. Two of the leading experts in this field - Addington and Schodek - have solved this problem by incorporating all the relevant information of all the latest technologies available to architects and designers in this one volume. They present materials by describing their fundamental characteristics, and go on to identify and suggest how these same characteristics can be exploited by professionals to achieve their design goals. Here, the wealth of technical understanding already available in the materials science and engineering literature is at last made accessible to a design audience.

What are active materials? This book aims to introduce and redefine conceptions of matter by considering materials as entities that ‘sense’ and respond to their environment. By examining the modeling of, the experiments on, and the construction of these materials, and by developing a theory of their structure, their collective activity, and their functionality, this volume identifies and develops a novel scientific approach to active materials. Moreover, essays on the history and philosophy of metallurgy, chemistry, biology, and materials science provide these various approaches to active materials with a historical and cultural context. The interviews with experts from the natural sciences included in this volume develop new understandings of ‘active matter’ and active materials in relation to a range of research objects and from the perspective of different scientific disciplines, including biology, physics, chemistry, and materials science. These insights are complemented by contributions on the activity of matter and materials from the humanities and the design field. Discusses the mechanisms of active materials and their various conceptualizations in materials science. Redefines conceptions of active materials through interviews with experts from the natural sciences. Contextualizes, historizes, and reflects on different notions of matter/materials and activity through contributions from the humanities. A highly interdisciplinary approach to a cutting-edge research topic, with contributions from both the sciences and the humanities.

This book presents a design-driven investigation into smart materials developed by chemists, physicists, materials and chemical engineers, and applied by designers to consumer products, buildings, interfaces, or textiles. Introducing a class of smart materials (referred to as stimuli-responsive, morphing or kinetic materials) that move and change their shape in response to stimuli, the book presents their characteristics, advantages, potentials, as well as the difficulties involved in their application. The book also presents a large number of case studies on products, projects, concepts, and experiments employing smart materials, thus mapping out new design territories for these innovative materials. The case studies involve different fields of design, including product, interior, fashion, and communication design. Reflecting the growing demand for sustainable and human-centered design agendas, the book explores and reveals the role and influence of these new materials and technologies on design and human experience, and discusses how they can be used to redefine our objects and spaces so as to promote more resilient environments. The book offers an intriguing and valuable resource for design professionals, engineers, scientists and students alike.