SmartMat: Smart materials to Smart world

Abstract

Over the course of human history, the ability to produce more sophisticated materials has underpinned tool development and led to the industrial revolution. With the rapid rise of “smart materials,” defined as materials programmed to sense, transduce, and respond to external stimuli to achieve a specific task, human beings will launch the fourth industrial revolution. For example, cyber–human interactions and various smart wearable devices are becoming integrated into every aspect of human life. Neuromorphic computing, quantum communication, and the fifth-generation wireless systems are ushering in a new era of the internet of things. Additionally, smart biomimetic robots even surpass the capabilities of natural organisms. History tells us that new materials are the footstone of human civilization and smart materials are no different in this regard. Multifunctional three-dimensional printing techniques can construct complex objects by the layer-by-layer printing of materials. Shape memory polymers and intelligent liquid metals can be transformed into arbitrary shapes, which is evoking the legends of shape-shifting robots. Flexible conductive polymers and smart carbon materials provide key enabling functionalities required for the post-Moore era. Smart materials can increasingly be designed and tailor-made with optimum performance for particular functions and applications. Moreover, smart DNA molecules and molecular machines open up a new pathway for harnessing chemical energy to produce mechanical work. Adhering to the theme of “smart materials for a smart world,” SmartMat came into being. As a flagship open-access journal, SmartMat was launched under the auspices of Tianjin University and Wiley. It aims to address the growing scientific interest in developing intelligent materials that can be programmed to change significantly in a controlled fashion by external stimuli across the entire spectrum of materials science and engineering. SmartMat is expected to make a mark in the field of materials science with ambitions of a high academic impact. The scope of SmartMat is intentionally broad and encompasses the multidisciplinary research of physics, chemistry, biology, and materials science and engineering. It includes topics such as (opto-)electronic, biomedical, stimulus-responsive, self-healing and nanoscale materials for next-generation sensors, actuators, energy harvesting, wearable devices, drug delivery systems, and so forth. SmartMat is helping to shape the smart society with a new generation of smart materials.