Functional Materials

Functional materials, also quite often called smart or advanced materials, offer new combinations of physical properties (e.g. electrical, optical or magnetic) that make them attractive for usage in modern high-tech industries like telecommunications or microelectronics. In this book the fundamentals of functional materials from all classes of materials - ceramics, polymers, metals and alloys - are discussed as well as their applications in information technology, fuel cells, systems for renewable energy and sensors and actuators are discussed.