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Smart Materials and Structures: Characteristics and Applications
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Smart Materials and Structures: Characteristics and Applications

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Smart Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2023) | Viewed by 4871

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Junshi Zhang

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Guest Editor
School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, China
Interests: smart materials and structures; soft robots; soft mechanics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Jun Shintake

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical and Intelligent Systems Engineering, University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan
Interests: smart materials, intelligent mechanics, soft robots
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Yanjie Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Special Robot Technology, Hohai University—Changzhou, Changzhou 213022, China
Interests: smart materials and structures; polymer based sensors and actuators; advanced bionics system and robotics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Lei Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
Interests: smart materials and structures; electro-active polymers; soft robotics; medical robot; smart skin for morphing aircraft
Dr. Xing Gao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research Centre for Medical Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgical Devices, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
Interests: soft robotics; medical robotics; smart materials; dielectric elastomer actuators
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Functional materials and structures can be actuated by the external stimulation, including the light, temperature, and electric field. Nowadays, various smart materials are studied as soft sensors and actuators or are designed to compose the smart structures to their own required performances. The typical soft smart materials involve dielectric elastomers, ionic-polymer metal composites, hydrogel, and shape memory polymers. During recent years, research on the stimuli-responsive smart materials and structures has been extensively performance. This special issue aims to create a multidisciplinary forum of discussion on the most recent research advances in synthesis, characterization, design, and application of smart materials and structures, providing a potential guided outlook for future studies.

We are pleased to launch this special issue and invite researchers to submit their original research papers. Both the theoretical and experimental results are welcome. Reviews within the domain of this special issue are also considered.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

  • Synthesis of functional and smart materials
  • Characterization and modeling of smart materials
  • Design of smart structures
  • Applications of materials as sensors and actuators
  • Robotic systems based on smart materials
  • Biomedical applications of smart materials
  • 3D-printed smart materials and applications
  • Energy harvesting systems that utilize smart materials

Prof. Dr. Junshi Zhang
Prof. Dr. Jun Shintake
Prof. Dr. Yanjie Wang
Prof. Dr. Lei Liu
Prof. Dr. Xing Gao
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • smart materials
  • smart structures
  • soft sensors
  • soft actuators
  • soft robots
  • 3D-printing
  • energy harvesting

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 7509 KiB  
Article
Low-Temperature Sintering of Ag Composite Pastes with Different Metal Organic Decomposition Additions
by Zixuan Xu, Xun Liu, Junjie Li, Rong Sun and Li Liu
Materials 2023, 16(6), 2340; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16062340 - 14 Mar 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2494
Abstract
Rapid developments in wide-bandgap semiconductors have led to the demand for interconnection materials that can withstand harsh conditions. In this study, novel Ag composite pastes were developed with the assistance of metal organic decomposition (MOD) to significantly reduce the sintering temperature of commercial [...] Read more.
Rapid developments in wide-bandgap semiconductors have led to the demand for interconnection materials that can withstand harsh conditions. In this study, novel Ag composite pastes were developed with the assistance of metal organic decomposition (MOD) to significantly reduce the sintering temperature of commercial Ag pastes. The effects of the decomposition characteristics of different MODs on the microstructure, morphology, and the shear strength of the Ag-sintered joints were systematically investigated. Additionally, the low-temperature sintering mechanisms of the MOD-assisted Ag composite pastes were studied and proposed. Among all the MODs studied, the one consisting of propylamine complexed with silver oxalate demonstrated the best performance due to its ability to form Ag nanoclusters with the smallest size (~25 nm) and highest purity (~99.07 wt.%). Notably, the bonding temperature of the MOD-modified Ag pastes decreased from 250 °C to 175 °C, while the shear strength increased from 20 MPa to 40.6 MPa when compared to the commercial Ag pastes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Materials and Structures: Characteristics and Applications)
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20 pages, 10438 KiB  
Article
Re-Entrant Honeycomb Auxetic Structure with Enhanced Directional Properties
by Farrukh Mustahsan, Sohaib Z. Khan, Asad A. Zaidi, Yaser H. Alahmadi, Essam R. I. Mahmoud and Hamad Almohamadi
Materials 2022, 15(22), 8022; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15228022 - 14 Nov 2022
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3639
Abstract
This paper presents a modified re-entrant honeycomb auxetic structure. The structure is constructed by adding an additional horizontal member between the vertical and re-entrant member of the semi-re-entrant honeycomb model to increase the overall compliance of the structure in order to obtain higher [...] Read more.
This paper presents a modified re-entrant honeycomb auxetic structure. The structure is constructed by adding an additional horizontal member between the vertical and re-entrant member of the semi-re-entrant honeycomb model to increase the overall compliance of the structure in order to obtain higher values of negative Poisson’s ratio (NPR). An analytical model of the structure is presented, taking into account the bending, shear, and axial deformations. The model is verified using finite element analysis (FEA) and tensile testing. The results of FEA and tensile testing corroborate the results of the presented mathematical model. The structure is also compared to the existing re-entrant honeycomb structure. The newly added strut has shown a direct effect on the directional properties of the overall structure. With an increase in the newly added strut to re-entrant lengths, NPR was significantly enhanced in the x-direction and reduced in the y-direction loadings. The structure shows an improved Young’s modulus compared to solid material in both loading directions, especially for the low values of the new strut and re-entrant lengths ratio. The structure also shows that high NPR can be achieved for low relative density compared to semi re-entrant honeycomb structure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Materials and Structures: Characteristics and Applications)
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12 pages, 4483 KiB  
Article
Wet Etching of Quartz Using a Solution Based on Organic Solvents and Anhydrous Hydrofluoric Acid
by Yang Wan, Xinghe Luan, Longzao Zhou and Fengshun Wu
Materials 2022, 15(18), 6475; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15186475 - 18 Sep 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2900
Abstract
The quartz-crystal resonator is the core device for frequency control in modern communication systems and network technology. At present, in modern resonator blanks manufacturing, BOE solution is usually used as the etching solution, but its etching rate is relatively volatile, and the surface [...] Read more.
The quartz-crystal resonator is the core device for frequency control in modern communication systems and network technology. At present, in modern resonator blanks manufacturing, BOE solution is usually used as the etching solution, but its etching rate is relatively volatile, and the surface morphology of the blanks is prone to defects after etching, which brings certain difficulties to the deep-etching process of the wafer. To solve the above challenges, this paper systematically compares a BOE solution and anhydrous etching solution in terms of etching rate, surface morphology, and electrical properties of the blanks after etching. Seven groups of blanks were etched using different etching solutions with different etching conditions to verify their effect on the surface morphology and electrical properties of quartz blanks. The experimental results suggest that the application of anhydrous etching solution has achieved better surface morphology and electrical properties and can be more suitable for application in batch manufacturing. In general, when using anhydrous etching solution, it is possible to reduce surface roughness by up to 70% and equivalent resistance by 32%, and the etch rate is almost 10 times lower than BOE solution under the same temperature, which is more conducive to the rate control of wafers in the etching process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Materials and Structures: Characteristics and Applications)
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