Designing hybrid materials

The properties of engineering materials can be mapped, displaying the ranges of mechanical, thermal, electrical and optical behavior they offer. These maps reveal that there are holes: some areas of property-space are occupied and others are empty. The holes can sometimes be filled and the occupied areas extended by making hybrids of two or more materials or of material and space. Particulate and fibrous composites are examples of one type of hybrid, but there are many others: sandwich structures, foams, lattice structures and more. Here we explore ways of designing hybrid materials, emphasizing the choice of components, their shape and their scale. The new variables expand the design space, allowing the creation of new “materials” with specific property profiles.