Core77

[Sus Designer]

Hi all,

Fairly new here, I've had a look through the posts already on here but couldn't see anything similar so I thought I'd start a new thread, heres my question:

Does anyone know of a material that evolves and/or adapts over time?
I'm thinking primarily in terms of its appearance though it would be interesing to know of ones that adapt in other ways.
I would like the appearance to change in terms of colouration, maybe texture and preferably be able to control the changes and rate of change to some degree.

Thanks guys

[nxakt]

Demin cotton jeans and the fading that occurs with wear and washing.

Scuba gear nylon fabrics that become worn and faded after sunlight, imparting character and credibility.

Patina on metals, which can occur over time or be artificially generated with heat and chemicals. Bronze specifically.

Plastic deterioration, fading or structural degrading. Soft touch finishes from ten year old cell phones that have turned into sticky oily surfaces. Plastics that fall apart and become brittle.

One of the major film stock producers ran a series of billboards in Switzerland a decade ago. "The nicest moments in life don't fade away" The billboard was printed in an ink that over the course of a month faded to nothing, the central photograph was the only thing remaining.

Wood. Leather burnishing.

COR-TEN steel used in outdoor sculptures and architecture. Weathering up to a point that develops a protective oxide (rust) layer and stops.

Glass formulations of fused quartz and sodium carbonate, which are attacked by moisture and essentially decay over short periods of time.

[mirk]

Copper. They replaced the roof on the parliament buildings here a few years ago, and they still haven't turned fully green, the tourists are visibly disappointed

[Sus Designer]

Thanks for the answers guys. I'm going to add a few comments, ideas i've been having, that sort of thing.

Does anyone know of a material that changes appearance as a current runs through it? I'd love to find a material I could run the current through at different levels and it would react differently, colour changes that sort of thing. It would be perfect if the material didnt return to its original state but maybe took on a slight hue of the reactions over time.

I also thought that there may be an ink that reacts in this way maybe??

I realise that this is a pretty unrealistic request but my thinking is that if anyone knows of a material with any of these properties they could let me know and I could explore it further.

Thanks for the help so far, I hope someone in the community can help me further.

[choto]

I don't know of any color changing conductive materials, not sure if you've checked http://www.inventables.com, you might find something on there.

There's a lot of thermochromic materials that change color with heat, depending on your use scenario you could use current to generate the heat to cause the change (kind of inefficient and wasteful though)



Can you give any more info on what you're trying to use this for, might help guide the responses