Smart Materials Unveiled: From Fundamentals to AI-Driven Innovations

The development of intelligent or smart materials is crucial to meet the demand for modern materials and to solve issues related to durability, performance, cost, resource availability, and environmental impact. Due to their great potential, they can be employed in many different sectors, such as biomedical, automotive, aerospace, civil industries, and energy. These materials are diverse, including piezoelectric materials, shape-memory alloys, magnetostrictive materials, electro- and magnetorheological fluids, chromic materials, and self-healing materials. In this paper, various kinds of intelligent materials are discussed, along with their benefits, limitations, potential uses, and the important role artificial intelligence has played in the progress of smart material research.