Abstract

Smart materials can respond to stimuli and adapt their responses based on external cues from their environments. Such behavior requires a way to transport energy efficiently and then convert it for use in applications such as actuation, sensing, or signaling. Ultrasound can carry energy safely and with low losses through complex and opaque media. It can be localized to small regions of space and couple to systems over a wide range of time scales. However, the same characteristics that allow ultrasound to propagate efficiently through materials make it difficult to convert acoustic energy into other useful forms. Recent work across diverse fields has begun to address this challenge, demonstrating ultrasonic effects that provide control over physical and chemical systems with surprisingly high specificity. Here, we review recent progress in ultrasound–matter interactions, focusing on effects that can be incorporated as components in smart materials. These techniques build on fundamental phenomena such as cavitation, microstreaming, scattering, and acoustic radiation forces to enable capabilities such as actuation, sensing, payload delivery, and the initiation of chemical or biological processes. The diversity of emerging techniques holds great promise for a wide range of smart capabilities supported by ultrasound and poses interesting questions for further investigations.

Highlights

  • There has been a growing demand for smart systems or devices that can change between defined states and respond to external stimuli in an adaptive manner

  • Biological systems are the pinnacle of known smart materials, with all biological functionalities arising from a mixture of physical and chemical interactions with the environment, along with biochemical information that is encoded in DNA

  • This review explores the basis of these effects and how they can be utilized, tuned, and combined with other physical, chemical, and biological systems to enable unique responsive systems and smart material capabilities

Read more

Summary

INTRODUCTION

There has been a growing demand for smart systems or devices that can change between defined states and respond to external stimuli in an adaptive manner. The past few years have seen several innovations that are accelerating the adaptation of ultrasonic components for use in smart systems and materials This trend has been supported largely by a shift toward integration of smart systems with biological systems, which benefit from the above-mentioned advantages of ultrasound. These range from directed assembly of smart materials, geometric reconfiguration of smart systems, sensing and actuation, payload transport and delivery, to the triggering of biological and chemical processes. These capabilities are enabled by different ultrasound-induced effects, namely, cavitation, microstreaming, structural vibrations, acoustic scattering, and the acoustic radiation force. It focuses on the intersection of acoustics with smart systems and identifies mechanisms and techniques that could be useful for smart systems, and explores emerging directions and open questions in this rapidly developing field

What Are Acoustic Waves?
Controlling Acoustic Waves
Using Acoustic Energy
Patterning and Assembly of Biological Materials
Reconfiguring Shape and Material Properties
Sensing
Payload Transport and Delivery
Initiating Biological and Chemical Processes
Actuation and Locomotion
Findings
CONCLUSION AND OUTLOOK
Full Text
Paper version not known

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.