Smart Materials for Energy, Communications and Security

Rapid evolution of trade, cultural and human relations provides the qualitative and quantitative enhancement of international collaborations, linking the countries with different economical and technological level. Delocalization of High-Tech industry inevitably leads to development of the material science and engineering researches in emergent countries, requiring transfer of know-how, restructuration of basic research and educational networks. This book presents the contributions of participants of the Advanced Research Workshop “Smart Materials for Energy, Communications and Security” (ARW SMECS; www.smecs.ferroix.net), organized in December 2007 in Marrakech in frame of the “NATO - Science for Peace” program. The objective of this event was the attempt to overview several hot topics of material physics related with problems of modern society: transformation and storage of energy, treatment and transmission of information, environmental security issues etc., with the focus of their implementation in Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) countries: Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. The workshop is an important stage in developing of the research network “Mediterranean Electronic Materials” – MEM (www.reseau-MEM.org), that has an objective to encourage the inter-Maghreb and Europe-Maghreb collaborative studies in the area of electroactive materials. Participants of the Advanced Research Workshop “Smart Materials for Energy, Communications and Security” , Marrakech, Morocco, December 2007 v vi PREFACE