C2(i) - Bonding and Reactions 10.

New Materials.

New materials are constantly being developed, with new properties. The two groups of materials you need to know are nanomaterials and smart materials.

Smart Materials Have Some Really Weird Properties.

1) Smart materials behave differently depending on the conditions e.g. temperature.

2) A good example is nitinol - a "Shape Memory Alloy". It's a metal but but when it is cool you can bend it and twist it like rubber. However if you bend it too far it will stay bent. If heat it above a certain temperature, it goes back to a "remembered" shape. It's good for glasses frames. If you accidentally band them you can put them in water and they revert back to their original shape. Nitinol is made from half nickel half titanium.

3) Other examples of smart materials include dyes that can change colour depending on the temperature or light intensity, liquids that turn into solids when you put them in a magnetic field, and materials that expand or contract when you put an electrical…