Next Generation Materials

Next-generation materials include super-light materials and active materials that react to changes
in their environment and ultimately smart materials that explain how they are doing. Functional
materials follow by borrowing ideas from biology to improve performance and add new
behaviours. Self-assembling materials are about making large-scale products that are more
precise, enabling better properties (strength, tear resistance, conductivity, etc.).

Superomniphobic materials: Inspired by water bugs that float on liquid surfaces, these
materials repel both oily and watery fluids.

Auxetic materials: When stretched, auxetic materials become thicker perpendicular to the
applied force. This occurs due to their hinge-like structures, which flex when stretched. Auxetics
may be useful in applications such as body armor, packing material, knee and elbow pads, robust
shock absorbing material, and sponge mops.

Aerogel: A synthetic porous ultralight material derived from a gel, in which the liquid
component of the gel has been replaced with a gas. The result is a solid with extremely low
density and thermal conductivity which feels like polystyrene (styro foam) to the touch. Potential
applications include improved thermal insulation, chemical absorber for cleaning up spills,
electrochemical supercapacitors and shock absorption.

Thermo-bimetals: Thermally activated bimetals would allow for panes of glass capable of
becoming shades when exposed to the sun, self-regulating energy consumption throughout the
day.

Smart materials: Designed materials that have one or more properties that can be
significantly changed in a controlled fashion by external stimuli, such as stress, temperature,
moisture, pH, electric or magnetic fields.

Biomaterials: Derived either from nature or synthesized in the laboratory, biomaterials can be
used to enhance or replace natural functions in the body. Already used to a small degree, future
biomaterials have the potential of improving drug delivery (by permitting extended drug release)
or to improve grafting in transplants.

Meta-materials: Materials with a precise shape, geometry and arrangement which can affect
light and sound in unconventional manners. Potential applications are diverse, including remote
aerospace applications, infrastructure monitoring, smart solar power management, public safety,
improving ultrasonic sensors, and even shielding structures from earthquakes.
Graphene: A substance composed of pure carbon with atoms arranged in a regular hexagonal
pattern similar to graphite, but in a one-atom thick sheet. With a 1-square-meter sheet weighing
only 0.77 mg, the material is incredibly light yet strong. Potential applications are incredibly
diverse, and include: Components with higher strength to weight ratios, lower cost solar cells,
lower cost display screens in mobile devices, storing hydrogen for fuel cell powered cars,
medical sensors, faster charging batteries, ultracapacitors, chemical sensors and many others.

Nanoelectricmechanical systems (NEMS): Devices integrating electrical and

mechanical functionality on the nanoscale. NEMS typically integrate transistor-like
nanoelectronics with mechanical actuators, pumps, or motors, and may thereby form physical,
biological, and chemical sensors.

Self-healing materials: A class of smart materials that have the structurally incorporated
ability to repair damage caused by mechanical usage over time. The inspiration comes from
biological systems, which have the ability to heal after being wounded. A material (polymers,
ceramics, etc.) that can intrinsically correct damage caused by normal usage could lower
production costs of a number of different industrial processes through longer part lifetime,
reduction of inefficiency over time caused by degradation, as well as prevent costs incurred by
material failure.

Controlled self-assembly: Machines that manipulate individual atoms with organism-like

self-replicating abilities. These bottom-up, atomically precise 3D printers would be able to
carefully create sequences of DNA, RNA or protein.

Large-scale self-assembling materials: A process in which a disordered system of pre-

existing components forms an organized structure or pattern as a consequence of specific, local
interactions among the components themselves, without external direction. Such materials could
potentially heal themselves and grow/contract on cue.

Nanofactories: A proposed system in which nanomachines would combine reactive

molecules via mechanosynthesis to build larger, atomically precise parts. These, in turn, would
be assembled by positioning mechanisms of increasing size to build macroscopic (human-scale)
products that remain atomically precise.

Aerospace materials: Carbon nano tubes have instigated the interest of many different
scientific fields since their authenticated introduction,more than two decades ago. Particularly in
aerospace applications,the potential limplementations of these advanced materials have been
predicted to have a large impact on future aircraft and space vehicles,mainly due to their distinct
features,which include superior rmechanical ,thermal and electrical properties.
Magnetic materials: The development of complex metallo-supramolecular architectures is
an active and diverse research field, rich in fascinating chemistry with many potential
applications. Whilst historically this field has been heavily skewed towards transition metal-
based systems, there is a smaller sub-section made up of lanthanide-based assemblies that have
been the focal point for some research groups owing to their well-known optical and magnetic
properties. Moreover, with the current drive to develop more complex luminescent and
magnetically interesting materials (e.g. luminescent cellular imaging systems, luminescent
sensors, MRI contrast agents, Light Emitting Devices, Single Molecule Magnets (SMM) etc.) the
use of Ln3+ ions in the assembly of complex, and functional, architectures has gained significant
attention over the last decade or so.

Electronics Materials: Electrospinning (E-spin) is a unique technique to fabricate polymeric

as well as metal oxide nanofibers. Research on electrospun nanofibers is a very active field in
material science owing to their novel applications in diverse domains. The main focus of this
review is to provide an insight into E-spin technique by understanding the working principle,
influencing parameters and applications of nanofibers in different walks of life. Several hundreds
of papers are published on the preparation, modification and applications of nanofibers produced
by E-spin technique in the areas like sensor development, decontamination,energy storage,
biomedical and catalysis etc.
The recent progress and future development of cathode materials for lithium ion batteries have
been critically reviewed in this article.We have given some critical opinions and rational ideas
regarding the development of cathode materials to dramatically reduce the cost and increase the
efficiency of future lithium ion batteries,which will revolutionize the way for transporta- tion and
affect many aspects of our lives.

Optical Materials: The advances in optoelectronics over the last three decades have been
quite dramatic, namely the mass manufacturing of low cost integrated circuits, revolutionizing
the speed and the capability of computing and communication. However, todays ever-increasing
demand for high-bandwidth data is outgrowing the performance of electronics in many
applications, such as in telecommunications where the traffic demand has been increasing
steadily and, therefore, the transmission technology requires bandwidth that exceeds the one
provided by actual copper based networks. In this context, the fabrication of lowcost integrated
optics (IO) devices using solgel derived organicinorganic hybrid (OIH) materials has received
increasing attention in the last years. This review will focus on examples of OIHs that can be
used in IO devices for the next generation of optical networks. Emphasis will be given to passive
(planar and channel waveguides, couplers and multimode interference splitters) and active (lasers
and optical amplifiers) optical architectures for long haul/metro and access/indoor networks.

Structural Materials: A major fraction of the electricity that is generated in the world is
used in the building sector, particularly as a source of light. One way to reduce the consumption
of electricity in buildings is by utilizing natural light with the help of environmentally friendly
resources such as transparent wood. Removing the lignin from wood followed by impregnating
environmentally friendly polymers whose refractive index matches the refractive index of the
cell wall helps in obtaining transparent wood. Hence, herewith we report a simple and low-cost
method of fabricating transparent wood from beech wood (Fagus grandifolia) while retaining its
3-dimensional structure. The surface morphology of the synthesized transparent wood was
studied by using scanning electron microscopy. Brunauer Emmet Teller measurements were
carried out to determine the specific surface area. FTIR measurements were performed to study
the wood chemistry. Optical measurements showed a maximum optical transmittance of 70%
and a maximum haze of 49% for 0.1 mm and 0.7 mm thick wood samples, respectively.
Mechanical testing showed that the transparent wood has a higher tensile strength and hardness
when compared to the delignified wood. The fabricated transparent wood with high
transmittance and enhanced mechanical properties is a potential candidate material for light
transmitting building materials and transparent solar cell windows.

Improvements on non-equilibrium and transport Green function techniques:

We present novel methods implemented within the non-equilibrium Green function code (NEGF)
transiesta based on density functional theory (DFT). Our flexible, next-generation DFTNEGF
code handles devices with one or multiple electrodes (Ne 1) with individual chemical
potentials and electronic temperatures. We describe its novel methods for electrostatic gating,
contour optimizations, and assertion of charge conservation, as well as the newly implemented
algorithms for optimized and scalable matrix inversion, performance-critical pivoting, and hybrid
parallelization. Additionally, a generic NEGF post-processing code (tbtrans/phtrans) for
electron and phonon transport is presented with several novelties such as Hamiltonian
interpolations, Ne 1 electrode capability, bond-currents, generalized interface for user-defined
tight-binding transport, transmission projection using eigenstates of a projected Hamiltonian, and
fast inversion algorithms for large-scale simulations easily exceeding 106 atoms on workstation
computers. The new features of both codes are demonstrated and bench-marked for relevant test
systems.