Dr. Chung is one of the most reputable American Scientists in material research with 15 patents and a pioneer woman in this area. She was awarded with Outstanding Inventor Award from SUNY and the Charles E. Pettinos Award from American Carbon Society, amongst others. She has authored 5 books about structural and functional materials and more than 500 papers. Deborah Chung is also a beloved Professor at University at Buffalo, State University of New York.

Can you tell our audience what multifunctional structural materials are?

Multifunctional structural materials are structural materials that can provide one or more functions in addition to the structural function. Examples of such functions are sensing (e.g., sensing damage, strain and stress), deicing (also anti-icing, as needed for bridges, highways and driveways for safety enhancement), electrical grounding, electromagnetic interference shielding (for protecting electronics from the radio wave emitted from cell phones and other devices) and lightning protection.

Out of all multifunctional structural materials, which one is closer to commercial deployment?

There are two categories of multifunctional structural materials. In one category, the additional function is due to the structural material itself. In the other category, the additional function is due to a device that has been embedded in the structure or attached to the structure. The first category is attractive for its low cost, high durability, large functional volume and absence of mechanical property loss. The first category is what I am interested in. Cement-based materials (concrete) and carbon fiber epoxy-matrix lightweight structural composites are among the materials of the first category.

Can multifunctional structural materials be applied to residential construction with current architectural, design and construction paradigms? Do they need to be manipulated differently (because of health-related issues, etc.)?

Multifunctional structural materials of the first category can be implemented just like conventional structural materials.

You are the inventor of smart concrete, could you introduce its benefits versus ordinary concrete? What are their draw backs?

Smart concrete is concrete that is itself a sensor of its strain or stress. Ordinary concrete cannot provide this function. The function relates to the electrical resistance of the smart concrete changing with strain or stress.

Smart concrete can serve as a scale for weighing moving trucks, moving cars, cargo and rooms. The room occupancy thus sensed can be used to control the heating, cooling, lighting and ventilation of each room of a building in order to save energy. Smart concrete also serves as a detector of intruders (for building security) and of vibrations (for earthquake warning). Smart concrete contains a small proportion (e.g., 0.2% by volume) of short carbon fiber, which results in a cost increase of about 30% compared to conventional concrete.

Do smart concrete change structural functions of the concrete?

The smart concrete has superior flexural toughness and strength compared to conventional concrete. In addition, it has less drying shrinkage. These are additional benefits that help the structural properties.

What is your concept of smart house?

A smart house can have various functions, such as sensing, electromagnetic interference shielding, deicing (also anti-icing), energy management, energy generation and energy storage.

What work needs to be done to allow building entire smart buildings with these kind of materials? (e.g. more research, education, regulation, etc.)

In addition to research, collaboration is needed between researchers and technology implementation personnel to field test the technology and to bring the technology to commercialization.

You are committed with sustainability, which role can multifunctional concrete play?

Smart concrete can provide energy management, as mentioned above in relation to room occupancy monitoring and building facility management. Much energy is now wasted in half-empty buildings.

After almost 20 years researching multifunctional concrete, which are in your opinion the main research priorities that need to be tackled?

Research on materials for vibration damping is needed, particularly in view of the severe earthquakes that frequently occur in various parts of the world. Damping refers to reducing the amplitude of vibration and dissipating the vibrational energy. In fact, my latest research breakthrough (made in 2009) relates to a new material with unprecedented vibration damping ability (much better than any existing material). The new technology is covered by a pending patent and is available for commercialization.

We would like to thank you Dr. Chung for taking the time to answer our questions.