Smart Materials
Materials whose properties can be significantly altered by external stimuli.
Martensitic Transformation in Crystal-Amorphous Superlattices of NiTi Shape Memory Alloy
Crystal-amorphous superlattices in NiTi are simulated to shift martensitic transformation behavior, boosting reversibility and stiffness while raising transformation critical stress.
HVAF Spraying of NiTi Coatings: Microstructure, Phase Transformation and Shape Memory Behavior
HVAF spraying enables thick (100–300 µm) NiTi shape-memory alloy coatings on mild steel that can undergo martensitic transformation and exhibit thermal actuation and shape memory effects after annealing.
Cold sintering as an enabler for self-healing ceramics: A perspective on sustainable, damage-tolerant materials
A perspective argues that cold sintering can enable self-healing ceramic architectures and even in-field repair, potentially reducing energy-intensive processing while improving damage tolerance.
FUTURE OF 4D PRINTING IN SOFT ROBOTICS AND INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION
A 2015–2025 review synthesizes how 4D printing with stimulus-responsive materials enables programmable, adaptive soft robotics and intelligent automation, while highlighting remaining barriers to translation.
An Autonomous Subgram SMA-Based Swimmer
Swima is a bioinspired subgram microswimmer using onboard-powered SMA-wire actuators and computation to achieve autonomous swimming with measured speed, turning, and trajectory tracking.
Scientists discover a strange property in rice and turn it into a smart material
A rice-derived, pressure-rate-dependent effect was used to engineer a material that automatically adapts stiffness to distinguish gentle motion from sudden impacts.
Recent progress in 4D printing: materials, methods and applications
This review synthesizes how 4D printing couples additive methods with stimulus-responsive materials—especially shape-memory polymers—to achieve programmed, time-dependent shape and property changes, while noting reliability and scalability
Current 3D Printing and Developed 4D Printing Technologies in Dentistry
The record reviews how 4D printing with stimuli-responsive smart materials could enable adaptive, time-evolving dental devices, though translation to routine practice still needs further research.
Function, Complexity and Thermodynamics in Adaptive and Intelligent Soft Matter Systems: An Information-Theoretical Framework
An information-channel framework quantifies responsive, adaptive, and intelligent soft matter using three metrics and benchmark planes tied to thermodynamics and noise.
Anomalous thermal and elastic properties of an epitaxial NiTi film exhibiting R-phase
Transient grating spectroscopy tracks how an epitaxial NiTi film’s shear moduli and thermal diffusivity change across an austenite–R-phase–martensite cycle, suggesting R-phase-driven thermal switching.
On the proposed concept of mechanical phasons in Ni-Mn-Ga modulated martensite
A mechanical model suggests that modulation phasons in Ni-Mn-Ga modulated martensite can produce macroscopic shear compliance for commensurate (and weakly incommensurate) modulations, but not for strongly incommensurate ones.
Multimaterial 4D printing of adaptive and reconfigurable auxetic metastructures
Multimaterial 4D printing with PLA/PCL enables auxetic metastructures whose geometry–material coupling yields tunable mechanics, energy absorption, and thermally induced reconfigurability.
3D Finite Element-Based Multiphysics Simulation of a Shape Memory Alloy Hybrid Composite Module
A coupled 3D ANSYS LS-DYNA multiphysics model for SMA hybrid composite actuators captures thermomechanical phase transformation and reproduces temperature-dependent hysteresis with experimental validation.
Thermomechanical Modelling and Shape Prediction in 4D Printing Using FEA
A thermomechanical FEA approach is used to simulate and plan shape morphing in 4D-printed two-layer and more complex structures.
Lactobacilli in Material Science: Sustainable Biopolymers and Self-Healing Technologies
Lactobacilli-based biofabrication is presented as a route to biodegradable biopolymers, self-repairing concrete, and antimicrobial coatings.
Shape Memory Polymers: An Overview
This review systematically surveys shape-memory polymer composites and their thermally, solvent, light, electrically, and magnetically induced response mechanisms, highlighting key design strategies and remaining challenges.
Shape-morphing greenhouse: design of a thermally responsive transparent 4D-printed structure
A proof-of-concept transparent 4D-printed PLA greenhouse structure was tested for thermally driven shape-morphing ventilation using bio-inspired mechanisms, showing concept potential but material and structural limits.
Revolutionizing Personalized Medicine with 4D Printing in Drug Delivery
4D printing uses dynamic materials that change with temperature, humidity, and pH to enable environment- and body-signal–dependent, personalized drug delivery.
Applications and Research of 4D Printing in Material Design
4D printing integrates smart materials into additive manufacturing so cured parts can undergo programmable, stimulus-driven shape and functionality changes over time.
Exploring 4D Printing Technology for Biomedical Applications
The editorial argues that adding a time dimension to 3D printing via stimuli-responsive materials enables dynamic, personalized biomedical devices such as adaptive implants and controlled drug-release hydrogel capsules.
Smart Material Technologies for Energy-Efficient Buildings in Iraq
Smart coatings can significantly enhance energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions in residential buildings in hot climates.
Controlled drug delivery from chitosan-coated heparin-loaded nanopores anodically grown on nitinol shape-memory alloy
A two-stage anodized nitinol surface coated with chitosan forms a hydrophilic, nanoporous platform that controls heparin release via diffusion and shows non-cytotoxicity in vitro.
Bioinspired and smart material systems for auricular cartilage engineering: toward microenvironment-responsive and self-regulating scaffolds
This review highlights advancements in bioinspired and smart materials for effective auricular cartilage engineering and regeneration.
Variational phase-field modeling of fracture and fatigue in shape memory alloys: a one-dimensional study
A new 1D variational phase-field model links SMA phase transformation and damage to reproduce distinctive fracture localization and fatigue trends in Ni-Ti multi-wire samples.