Smart materials types, properties and applications: A review

Abstract

Future developments of smart materials for domains such as self-sustainable wireless sensor networks, self-tuned vibration energy harvesting devices, seismic applications etc. is the need of an hour. Such smart materials have the potential to build smart structures and materials. Smart materials are stimuli-responsive which constituted a broad range of materials to exploit vibration control such as piezoelectric, shape memory alloys, electro-rheological fluid and magneto-rheological fluid. Smart materials show a certain amount of analogy with respect to biological systems. For instance, piezoelectric hydrophones that show similarity as that of ears with which fish senses vibrations, piezoelectric with an amalgamation of electromechanical coupling, shape‐memory materials with a potential to recollect the original shape and electro-rheological fluids with manipulative viscosity strength etc. Such potential grabbed the attention of research and allow them to think and integrate varied advanced technologies into compact, diverse functional packages with an ultimate aim to develop advanced smart materials and revolutionize the research field of smart materials. This review initially discusses a brief summary of the aforementioned stimuli-responsive smart materials following a complete description of some of the smart materials.