Smart materials for the 21st century

摘要

The key to 21st century competitive advantage will be the development of products with increasing levels of functionality, a critical part of which will be advances made in smart' materials. Defined as those materials that form part of a smart structural system that has the capability to sense its environment and the effects thereof and, if truly smart, to respond to that external stimulus via an active control mechanism, they can be applied to both large structures, fixed and mobile, and to consumer products across all of the major industrial market sectors. The objective of the Foresight Smart Materials Taskforce was to carry out a worldwide comparative review of the status of this important technology, to identify the key drivers and barriers to its commercial exploitation, and to recommend a strategy for future UK government funding support. The major recommendation of the Taskforce is the establishment of a UK National Centre of Excellence. This should be modelled on the best practice emerging from various current UK government initiatives, eg Faraday Centres, Interdisciplinary Research Centres and Defence Technology Centres. The fast-moving nature of technical developments in this field and its broad market sectoral appeal both lend themselves to a 'hub and spoke' structure, combining a strong management function with a high degree of flexibility. The centre could focus on smart materials only as defined within this study or have a broader functional materials remit.