ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Hybrid materials

Hybrid materials are like a mix of two or more things that come together to make something new!

Let's say you have some play dough and some glitter, and you mix them together. Now you have a hybrid material, because it's not just plain play dough anymore, it sparkles too!

Scientists do this kind of thing too, but with all sorts of different materials - like metals, plastics, ceramics, and more. They mix them together to make new materials that have special properties that none of the original materials had by themselves.

For example, they might mix a plastic and a metal together to make a hybrid material that's both strong and lightweight - perfect for making parts for airplanes or cars. Or they might mix a ceramic and a polymer together to make a hybrid material that's super hard and scratch-resistant, but also flexible.

The possibilities are practically endless, and hybrid materials have all sorts of cool uses in all sorts of different fields - from medicine to construction to electronics and more.