1. Year 8 RM Electronics Smart Materials Modern Materials
A smart material is a material which reacts to an external stimulus in its environment. Smart materials can react to stimuli such as heat, pressure, moisture, pH level, light and electricity.
Modern Materials
A modern material is a type of material which has been developed as a result of new and modern manufacturing processes.
Characteristics
Uses
Thermochromic pigments
Thermochromic pigments respond to heat.
The pigments are put into products where it is useful to show a change in temperature.
Mostly the pigments can return to their original colour but they can be made to irreversible. This is often used to represent a when a product has reached a certain temperature and is shown as a warning.
Often used for food packaging. Also used in novelty products such as mugs, mood rings and clothing.
Photochromic pigments
Photochromic pigments respond to UV light.
The pigments are put into products where it is useful to change colour where light levels vary.
The pigments can return to their original colour but there is a delay in their change of colour. For example photochromic lenses may take a couple of minutes to reach the desired darkness.
Used in the lenses of glasses and for windows where there is bright sunlight. Also used in novelty products such as clothing.
Smart Memory Alloy
Shape memory alloys are materials which remember a pre-set shape and can return to this shape even if they have been severely disformed. The stimulus for the material returning to its shape is normally heat or electricity.
Nitinol has many applications. It can be used in dental braces, surgical stents (to open up arteries and keep them open), as well as glasses frames.
Corn starch polymers
Characteristics
Uses
Because they are made using vegetables (corn), they are infinite.
They are fully biodegradable. This means the bacteria in the soil naturally breaks down the corn starch.
They are not recyclable, because they decompose so easily.
Often used for food packaging and food containers such as takeaway boxes.
They are safe to use in food because they do not contain harmful chemicals.
Flexible MDF
Characteristics
Uses
Made from wood pulp like traditional MDF only with small grooves cut out.
The grooves in the wood give it flexibility.
Can be veneered or painted easily.
Not very good outdoors as MDF is absorbent.
Modern curved furniture with organic flowing designs
Fibre Optics
Characteristics
Uses
Made from thin glass strands roughly the same thickness of a human hair.
Data is transmitted as light and travels at high speeds.
The outer casing around the glass acts as a mirror and reflects the light, allowing it to travel around bends in the wire and prevents data loss.
Used for internet data/telephone.
Used in surgery to shine light into patients.
Used in engineering to shine light into machines.

2. Electrical components
Energy Generation
Nuclear energy
A very controversial type of power generation! Nuclear power is considered very clean and efficient. It provides 11% of the worlds electricity.
Fossil fuels are when we burn coal, oil and gas. They are considered finite resources as coal, oil and gas are formed over many millions of years and cannot be replaced if they run out. Burning fossil fuels released CO2 into the atmosphere.
Finite = cannot be replaced when they run out.
Shale gas
Shale gas is a type of gas which becomes trapped in the shale rock layer of the earths crust. The gas is valuable and can be burnt. Retrieving it is done through a process called fracking.
Energy Storage
1. A very deep drill is drilled through the earths crust to the shale layer.
Energy can be stored and used to mechanically power products.
2. A mixture of sand, water and chemicals are pushed through the drilled hole and fracture the shale rock to release the gas.
Kinetic energy: the energy an object has due to its motion.
Chemical energy: the energy an object has due to a chemical reaction?
3. The gas travels up through the hole and is caught when it reaches the top.
Batteries
Electrical energy can be stored in batteries and come in many different shapes and sizes. Batteries are powered by a chemical reaction which occurs when a battery is put in a circuit. When batteries begin to rot away in landfill sites these chemicals can leak into the ground, which can cause soil and water pollution. When chemicals contaminate soil and water animals, humans and the environment can be harmed. 
Pneumatics
Pneumatics is a way of transferring energy by putting pressure on air.
It uses compressed air to move machine parts. It is used in for many functions, such as train doors, food production lines, hand tools such as pneumatic staplers and jack hammers. Pneumatic systems will last longer as gases do not damage equipment and leaks do not cause expensive repairs. The gases in a system can be easily replaced whereas oil is harder to feed into a system.
Hydraulics
Hydraulics is a way of transferring energy by putting pressure on liquids. It works on the principle of Pascal's Law. This is that pressure applied on a liquid is transmitted equally. Generally the liquid used in hydraulics is oil. Air cannot be used for heavier machinery as this needs more power and pressure, so hydraulics is used for this as liquids have more strength and force. E.g. a river with fast flowing water is more powerful than a gas would be of an equal amount.
Renewable energy sources
Energy that comes from the earths non-finite resources is known as renewable. This includes wind, tidal, geothermal, solar etc. They are less harmful to the environment.
Integrated circuits
Integrated circuits (IC), sometimes called a ‘chip’, is a self contained circuit. It has small metal pins as legs which are pushed into the PCB board to connect it to the circuit. An IC can contain thousands of components, but rather than being separate, they are built into this one component. So for example, it could contain hundreds of resistors, light dependant resistors, timers, amplifiers etc.
Electrical components
Biofuel
The term biofuel describes the process where plants are grown and converted into fuels such as biodiesel. This is sometimes also known as biomass. This process is considered to be carbon neutral. This means the carbon dioxide created by burning the fuel, is balanced by the carbon dioxide absorbs by the plants grown for the fuel.
Resistors
When electricity flows around a circuit, it can sometimes be too powerful. If the electrical current is too strong is may break a component such as an LED or blub. Resistors resist the flow of electricity and protect components from breaking.
It requires large amounts of land which can result in food shortages in developing countries as the land cannot be used for food crops. Also the plants require lots of water and this can be a problem in countries where there are drought or water shortages.