Making engines more efficient will also improve air quality by reducing emissions. An alternate approach is to clean-up the exhaust before it reaches the atmosphere. One of our own graduates, Dr. Rod Bagley, developed the Corning process for the ceramic honeycomb used in the catalytic converter . This highly porous ceramic exposes the exhaust to a high surface area of the active catalyst that removes the pollutants. Found in everyday applications from bottles to plastic bags, they are the volume leaders in the materials community, surpassing even metals in the amount sold every year.
Polymers have even more exotic applications, such as the manufacture of tank armor.
A more recent example is the compact disc used for sound and video reproduction as well as for large, fast computer memories. Very specially engineered materials are required to avoid rejection by the human body and deleterious interactions with body fluids that would compromise performance. Polymers are used to manufacture artificial joints such as the hip replacement shown here. Related materials are the composites used in high performance golf clubs, tennis rackets, fly rods, and many other applications. As the name implies, composites involve two or more materials combined to give a performance standard that far exceeds that of either material alone.