Center for Functional Nanomaterials Seminar

Smart materials exhibit unique mechanical, electrical, magnetic, thermal, chemical and optical properties that can be harnessed for designing devices that provide important functionality in a number of applications in a multitude of engineering and technology fields. For example, smart materials such as shape memory materials, piezoelectric materials, magnetostrictive materials, and thermoelectric materials are used in developing biomedical devices such as cardiovascular stents for enhancing blood flow in arteries, ultrasounds and echocardiography instrumentation for biomedical imaging, sonar for high-seas navigation, sensors for structural health monitoring in bridges and oil pipelines, and thermoelectrics for alternate energy generation. The current market for smart materials is around $12 billion and growing. Thus, there is an ever present need for developing the next generation of smart materials that can provide enhanced functionality.
In this presentation, piezoelectric composite materials will be used as a model system to illustrate how analytical and computational modeling techniques can be developed to help us obtain further insights into the 'smart behavior' of piezoelectric materials and to create an enabling platform for the design of piezoelectric materials for specific applications with enhanced reliability. Furthermore, brief highlights on how nanotechnology enabled diagnostic tools and methods such as Nanoindentation can be invoked to assist in the characterization and design of such smart materials will also be presented.