The smart material that is changing the game: Nitinol!

Have you ever heard of Nitinol? It may sound like a superhero name, but it’s actually a really cool material that scientists have discovered. Nitinol is a type of smart material that can remember its original shape and return to it, even after being bent or twisted. It is composed of a special combination of two metals, nickel and titanium, hence its name (NiTi – Nitinol).

When Nitinol is heated, it returns to its original shape, this is because the heat changes the arrangement of the atoms in the material, causing it to, say, remember its original shape. This property of Nitinol makes it useful in many different applications, one example of how Nitinol is used is in braces, you may have heard of traditional metal braces that people wear on their teeth to straighten them. Well, Nitinol can also be used in braces because it can remember the shape of the patient’s teeth and apply pressure to move them into the correct position. This can make the process of getting braces a bit easier and more comfortable.

Nitinol is also used in other medical devices, such as stents. Stents are small tubes used to keep blood vessels in the body open. Nitinol stents can be reduced to a small size and then inserted into the body, once in place they can be heated and will expand to the correct size and shape to keep the blood vessel open.

Another cool thing about Nitinol is that it can be used to make things move by themselves, without electricity or other power sources. For example, scientists have used Nitinol to make little robots that can crawl and move on their own. This is because the Nitinol can remember its original shape and change back when heated, causing the robot to move.

Overall, Nitinol is a very good material that has many different uses. It is ideal for medical devices, orthotics, and even small robots. Who knows, maybe one day you’ll come up with a new way to use Nitinol too.

Let’s learn a little more about nitinol with the following video