SMART MATERIALS and PACKAGING, NANOTECHNOLOGY, and EMULSIONS

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Aim:

• To understand the different types of materials that exist today

Lycra

• Artificial fibre that was invented 50 years ago

• Stretches even more than rubber and is more resistant to tears and sunlight or when covered in sweat

Thinsulate

• Fibres are very thin and trap lots of air which traps heat inside the fabric

• Heat is also reflected back in to the fabric, which keeps you warm

Carbon Fibres

• Very rigid and not easy to shape, but very strong

• Composite material ismade by setting carbon fibres on to Plastic and moulding it in to shape with heat

Smart Material Alloys• Smart-material: change properties when

conditions change• Example: Shape-memory – when it is cooled

the shape changes, but when it warms up to room temperature the atoms bounce back in to place

Kevlar

• Weight for weight is five times stronger then steel; but it can be woven in to cloth and made into lightweight bulletproof vests

Gore-tex

• Has a special plastic layer sandwiched in between the fabric that has millions of microscopic holes

• Breathability: stops you getting sweaty

• The drops of water in rain are to big to get inside the fabric

Teflon

• Non-stick coating used in frying pans

• Incredibly slippery

• Now used in fabric that is stain resistant as well

Nanotechnology

• Nanometer: 1 billionth of a meter

• Nanoparticles: range from 10-100 nanometers in length

• Have strange but useful properties

• Example: titanium dioxide in new sunscreen (the particles are so small that you can’t see them, but they still block UV rays)

Examples of Nanotechnology

• Nanocomposites: combination of nanoparticles are other regular particles– Example: microfibres

• Nanotubes: sheets of carbon atoms that are rolled up on each other

• Nanobots: nano-sized machines

Plenary:

• Match the terms to the definitions