High-Tech Materials in Daily Life
In daily life, we use many high-tech materials: touch screen displays in smartphones, durable but lightweight composites in cars and airplanes, and innovative batteries for electromobility. The scarcity of resources and the demand for energy-saving and environmentally friendly production and disposal put enormous pressure on the materials industry to stay at the forefront of innovation. New paradigms are necessary to develop multifunctional and multiresponsive materials, including new types of catalysts, self-healing polymers, and programmable matter. A holistic approach to materials design is crucial to accelerate progress beyond incremental improvements based on trial and error.
Overcoming Challenges in Materials Development
Traditionally, the development cycle in materials science relies on natural scientists to develop microscopic models from first principles or experimental observations. Engineers also play a crucial role in constructing continuum theories to explain macroscopic behavior. The gap between these scales and approaches still hampers the creation of virtual test laboratories. These laboratories can predict the properties of composite materials at all scales, from micro- and mesostructures to composites and structured metamaterials. By combining these labs with a systematic exploitation of vast data through machine learning methods, this gap can be closed. This approach enables solving the reverse problem of finding the ideal material to fit a set of required properties in silico.