There is no group of materials as diverse, complex, and ubiquitous as polymers. From plastic bags, to rubber tires, electronics, food packaging, water filtration and even aerospace applications, the penetration of polymer materials into all aspects of life make them very important materials throughout all engineering fields. However, this breadth...
Advancements in the understanding and synthesis of transition metal compounds have allowed materials engineers to design functional materials with a range of properties, such as ferroelectricity, non-linear optical activity, colossal magnetoresistance, and superconductivity. Conventional routes to tune and design functional materials includes chemical cation substitution and heterostructuring of oxide thin...
Novel self-healing alloy composites have been designed to address the need for self-repairable high-strength structural materials. A systems-based materials design approach using computational design tools was used to design a multifunctional biomimetic composite that can repair structural damage. The self-healing composite consists of a controlled-melting alloy matrix reinforced by thermodynamically...
In recent times, there has been a transition away from traditional engineering materials to more advanced materials that are multi-functional and exhibit improved thermomechanical properties. Much of the inspiration for these advanced materials comes from natural biological systems that fulfill the needs of diverse organisms through clever material organization and...
Heterogeneous materials have been emerging and playing essential roles in various engineering and scientific fields. They usually include multiple phases of materials to create unique properties that are not accessible to their homogeneous counterparts. The traditional design approach in the material science community is to use trial-and-error iteratively, which is...