Currently, research will continue even as the technological innovations brought about by graphene and its derivatives have given us a glimpse into the disrupted world of tomorrow. Inevitably, other materials will be discovered one after another, revealing even more ambitious technological prospects that are currently unimaginable. Among these alternatives, programmable materials are an extremely important choice.
Traditional and Programmable Materials
Programmable materials, in simple terms, are those that can change shape or behavior through the application of an external signal, be it an electric field, an externally applied pressure, or the manipulation of other local properties.
Programmable material technology based on programmable materials is digital electronic signals that can be conducted or input to materials, and even signals compiled from brain waves, as well as thermal signals and light signals. Induction, thereby directional and orderly changing the intermolecular arrangement and intermolecular structure, and even destroying the inherent molecular morphology, resulting in physical performance beyond the original properties.
This is fundamentally different from the traditional material preparation and synthesis process. In the traditional large-scale material preparation industry, the required parts can only be manufactured roughly and cannot be accurately manufactured, and the parts or materials will inevitably be produced during the process. Defects and deformations or deviations in function and properties, thus making it difficult to adapt to the increasingly stringent requirements of fine and highly oriented material design in the future.
The concept of programmability integrates the basic features of fine functionalization, modularization and intelligence of computer language into the design and preparation process of functional materials, and uses automated and intelligent assembly language to realize the directional orientation of materials through the numerical control terminal. Accurately perform various physical and chemical treatments such as light induction, heat treatment, surface chemical synthesis, modification, etching, and electromagnetic excitation.
Take our smartphone as an example, if we want to read some news on our smartphone or tablet, to find and open the app for reading news, we need to use the touch screen. A touchscreen is a layered transparent material that is integrated with the visual display and electronic control systems in electronic equipment.
When pressed, the screen responds in a preprogrammed way, communicating with the device’s electronic control system to achieve the desired result – when the screen is touched, its electrical properties change. Some touchscreens take advantage of this change to interact and control how the device responds. While pressure and electrical properties are physically very different, they produce the same function. Such pre-programmed responses include turning the device on or off, opening or closing the application, and entering text.
The advantages of programmable materials are obvious. On the one hand, programmable materials will enable the refinement of materials. At present, due to the limitation of science and technology, many processes that require processing or preparing functional materials at the microscopic scale are far from meeting the theoretical requirements, not to mention the absolute errors generated in the process steps. Chemical treatment, or the processing or synthesis of micro-nanostructured materials, can achieve a more tiny and integrated fine processing, and achieve a near-ideal level in terms of shape, physical and chemical properties, etc.; in addition, due to The quantitative characteristics of computer language determine that there will be basically no meaningless consumption of programmable materials in the process of processing and preparation.
On the other hand, as the material itself at the end of digital process production, the processing method that separates the steps in the traditional process will be integrated like modern silicon-based semiconductor chips on programmable materials. This integration is not only about integrating The multi-step process is integrated into one step, and different chemical and physical processing methods will also be unified into the same matrix. The continuous process will reduce the production of unpredictable errors.
In addition, because the computer language in the future will have obvious learning characteristics, programmable materials will also obey the intelligent characteristics of the system as part of processing commands, and can make correct choices in more complex situations. In addition, the advancement of intelligence will also greatly enhance programmable materials. Self-healing and compensatory functions.
Programmable materials approach
Currently, programmable materials have quietly entered our lives.
Nitinol is an alloy of nickel and titanium that can be molded into a shape and then change shape on its own when exposed to heat. Because of this property, Nitinol is also known as a memory alloy.
Nitinol can be used to make electrical wires and is used in a variety of consumer and industrial products. For example, for the arch wire of braces, the heat of the human body will heat the arch wire made of Nitinol, causing the arch wire to shrink and then exert the necessary force to correct the position of the teeth; stents implanted in heart surgery; thermostatic controllers, Used where shapes need to change with temperature; and to control stable shape devices in space systems. In fact, scientists have discovered new uses for nitinol almost every year since it was discovered in 1959.
Clearly, materials with super-strong shape memory functions will perform very practical functions in daily life. For example, this material is used to repair minor damage to a car when a bumper is bent in a parking lot. It is not difficult to imagine that the material used in the bumper or side panel of a car is usually a certain shape, but they are heated or exposed. Under certain wavelengths of light, it takes on another shape. A technician might simply place the bumper under a precisely tuned “auto repair light” and it will automatically return to its original shape. This way, people don’t need to provide other expensive repairs or replacement parts for the car.
The same technology applies to aircraft, allowing them to continuously adjust their shape as the flight environment changes and optimize performance based on local conditions. Most transports can only maintain a fixed shape, but if the transport can subtly change shape according to local environmental conditions – for example, a car, plane or boat can all be able to slightly change the shape of the shell, it can improve the fuel by a few percentage points Efficiency, like a pro cyclist making subtle adjustments to his riding stance on the downhill to make the most of every last bit of dive speed.
In addition, ginger-Taylor metals are also one of the most representative programmable materials, and ginger-Taylor metals can exhibit different electrical properties with changes in the environment. Ginger-Taylor metals get their name from the Ginger-Taylor effect, which describes the twisting of molecules and ions that are geometrically arranged in an electronic state under low pressure. Conductive) becomes a conductor.
There have been experimental attempts to combine programmable materials with C60. A buckyball made of 60 carbon atoms, filled with metal rubidium, changes into the shape of a football once under pressure, and returns to a normal spherical shape when the pressure is reduced. Responsive molecules like that are the key to success in controlling any number of “on/off” systems at the single-molecule level — the “on/off” system that is the foundation of the digital revolution.
Not only that, the “switching” potential of other materials has gradually emerged. Catenane and rotaxane are two types of nanomaterials belonging to mechanically interlocking structures (MIMAs), which were widely recognized in 1983 and 1991, respectively, and allowed – Jean-Picrre Sauvage and Sir Fraser Stoddart, awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize for the “design and synthesis of molecular machines” for these two materials Chemistry Prize.
Catenanes are mechanically interlocked structures that look like two rings that are locked together. The material is made of long molecular chains that are bent into loops and connected end to end to form permanently closed loops. Rings also attract each other, but this intermolecular force is weak, similar to the force between graphene sheets. Such intermolecular forces form so-called supramolecular systems, which no longer consist of just one isolated molecule.
Rotaxanes are similar to a dumbbell with a separate ring around the handle. The thicker part of the molecule forms the “weight” at the end of the dumbbell, which prevents the collar from slipping. The point where the strong interaction between the collar and handle occurs is called the base point. When the right conditions are met, the collar can shuttle or jump between cardinal points.
After years of experimentation, researchers have discovered that they can pre-engineer the force of attraction between the loop and handle, allowing for automatic donning. This means that catenanes and rotaxanes will become programmable materials, and another chemical reaction will add weight to the collar/handle supramolecular system, trapping the collar and making it part of the overall system.
“Infrastructure” of future technology
Of course, the current application of programmable materials is only at the shallow level. In the long run, programmable materials will become the general existence of future technological “infrastructure”. For example, in the application of nanorobots, programmable materials will play an important role. The important role of substitution.
Or take catenane and rotaxane as an example. In 2005, a joint research team from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Italy developed a nanomachine that allows scientists to make the liquid flow upstream by simply adding some kind of light to it. The team created a rotaxane with two fixed base points for its handle, while a weight in the rotaxane connects the handle to a specially made bevel.
Under normal conditions, the liquid will flow downward along the slope, and the principle is also very simple, that is, the effect of gravity. The researchers found that under normal conditions, the rotaxane-engineered slopes also caused the liquid to flow downward. However, when they illuminated the rotaxane-modified slope with a special light, the liquid defied gravity and flowed upwards. The reason for this is that when light hits the inclined plane, it is absorbed by the rotaxane ring, giving the rotaxane ring sufficient energy to move from one base point to another. When the rotaxane ring jumps to the second base point, the weight on top repels the liquid.
Based on this, after repositioning the light, the researchers were able to make the entire droplet roll up the wafer. After the light source is turned off, the rotaxane ring will return to the original base point, and the droplet will roll down the sample.
This means that the superposition of quantum-level forces will have a huge effect. What’s more, this huge effect will have real value in technologies including nanorobots, such as helping molecules move toward specific targets, and enabling non-invasive precision surgery by injecting objects. Richard Feynman’s 1959 speech entitled “The Microscopic World Has Infinite Space” talked about the application of microrobots in medicine. At the time, these applications seemed very remote and whimsical, and now people have been through more In-depth research sees the future and promise of these applications.
Another important application of programmable materials is in 4D printing. 4D printing technology was first demonstrated by MIT in 2013: a polymer chain made with 4D printing technology was placed in water, and the chain automatically folded into a pre-designed shape. The chain is additively manufactured from two materials, one that swells in water and the other that doesn’t change in volume. The part that swells in contact with water compresses other parts to deform to form a predetermined shape.
Unlike 3D printing technology, which forms raw materials layer by layer like stacking “bricks” in various ways, which has the advantages of high design freedom and no need for molds, 4D printing uses specially designed and prepared programmable materials to make these “bricks”. “Bricks” are able to sense external conditions, with consequent changes in shape, performance and function. It can be said that the application of programmable materials is the basis and key to the realization of 4D printing.
In fact, the birth of 4D printing technology is closely related to the study of programmable materials. In 2007, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) carried out research on the “Programmable Matter” project, which aims to develop a smart material that can be transformed into an ideal or useful form under software control or external stimuli. Supplies are rapidly manufactured on-site on demand and enable military equipment to change shape on command. In the future, 4D printing will also show its significance and charm in many fields.
It can be said that the subversiveness of programmable materials is no less than that of graphene or carbon nanotubes. Programmable materials are still an important part of the next material science revolution, and have applications in social life that are unimaginable today.
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