MIT Media Lab

Materials characterization and

testing
HTMSTM(A)A class 2007
George Popescu
Prof. Neil Gershenfeld
 Summary
Materials
Introduction
States of matter and phases
Eutectics
Heat treatment
Solid mechanics
Tunable materials ( Polymers, Meta materials, Digital Materials)
Active materials (Waves and Patterns)
Granular materials

Characterization
Mechanic characterization
Thermo characterization (melting point)
Optical characterization (diffraction angle)
NMR (and other resonances)
Spectroscopy
Electrical characterization
Material science
 Some vocabulary
• σ : stress sensor (think : pressure)
• ε : strain sensor (think : displacement)
• E : Young modulus (scalar ? no! )
• v : Poisson ration (scalar ? No !)
• ΔT : temperature change.
• k* = bulk modulus (pressure increase needed to effect a
given relative decrease in volume )

F=-kx σ=Eε
 States of matter
vs
phases
Different states of matter must be different phases
However, the reverse is not true.

The most common state of matter in the universe is plasma

Less familiar phases include

•Quark-gluon plasma
•Bose Einstain condensates
•Fermionic condensates
•Strange matter
•Superfluids
•Supersolids.
Plasma…
Phase transitions
Ehrenfest classification :
First-order phase transitions exhibit a
discontinuity in the first derivative of the
free energy.
Second-order phase transitions have a
discontinuity in a second derivative of
the free energy

What if derivative of free energy

diverges ?

first-order phase transitions :

involve latent heat
second-order phase transitions :no
associated latent heat
(example : superfluid transition)
Phases
Supercritical CO2
You thought you knew ice ?
Si/Au alloy look like this :
Eutectics
Lead/tin
Defects in Crystals
Strength vs defect density
 Heat Treatment
Tradeoff between ductility and brittleness

• Annealing,
• Case hardening
• Precipitation strengthening,
• Tempering
• Quenching
 Tempering

The average unit cell of austenite

is, on average, a perfect little cube,
the transformation to martensite
sees this cube distorted by
interstitial carbon
atoms that do not have time to
diffuse out during displacive
transformation,
so that it is a tiny bit longer than
before in one dimension and a little
bit shorter
in the other two.
 For this class : solids
 Hooke's law : F= -kx
 Poisson's ratio :

Elasticity
Viscoelasticity
Plasticity
Thermoelasticity
Isotropy / anisotropy : birefringence
 Deformations
strain compression

Normal to
surface

tension
stress

Tangential
to surface

Young modulus
Elastic/plastic : instantaneous
Viscoelastic : viscous deformation

Purely elastic Viscoelastic

 Composites

+
Matrix Materials
Asphalt
Reinforcement Portland Cement
Steel Reinforcing Bar Polymers
Glass Fibers Polyester Resin
Polymer Fibers Vinyl Ester Resin
Nylon Based Epoxy
Natural Fibers Bismaleimide
Hemp Polyimide
Carbon Fibers Metals
Rayon Based Titanium
Ceramic Fibers Ceramics
 Thermo elastic properties

the resulting strain of a material allowed to expand freely

βC is the stress per degree K in the material constrained not to expand

Engineer thermoelastic properties
Left : Optimal microstructures composed
of hypothetical phases. Red is
high expansion phase, blue is low
expansion phase and white is void
a. Minimization of alpha*
b. Maximization of thermal k* for zero
thermal expansion
c. Maximization of beta*

Right : Invar is blue, Nickel is red and

void is white.
c. Minimization of b*
d. Maximization of contractive vertical
stress
e. Maximization of vertical strain.

Invar : Fe–36%Ni
 Tunable materials
• Polymers
• Meta Materials
• Digital Materials
 organic/inorganic

Polymers Homopolymer/copolymer
Linear/branched
 Epoxy

Epoxy or polyepoxide is a thermosetting polymer that

cures (polymerizes and crosslinks) when mixed with a
catalyze agent or "hardener"
The oxygen on the epoxy monomers is "flipped." A matrix
with a high stress tolerance is formed, and "glues" the
materials together.
Urethane : polymer too
 Hydrogels

Capillary forces osmotic forces

 Meta Materials
• material that gains its properties from its structure
rather than directly from its composition
• properties not found in naturally-formed
substances
• Electromagnetism (especially optics and
photonics)
• Microwave (new types of beam steerer,
modulator, band pass filter, lenses, microwave
couplers, and antenna radomes).
 Negative refractive index
• ε = permittivity (how an
electric field affects and is
affected by a dielectric
medium )
• μ = permeability ( how a
material is affected by a
magnetic field)
• ε>0 μ>0 in most materials
• ε<0 μ>0 : opaque
• Engineered : ε<0 μ<0
Meta Material
Photograph of the left-handed
metamaterial (LHM) sample. The
LHM sample consists of square
copper split ring resonators and
copper wire strips on fiber glass
circuit board material. The rings
and wires are on opposite sides
of the boards, and the boards
have been cut and assembled
into an interlocking lattice.
 Digital Materials
Digital
Tuneable
Active
Error reduction
 Error detection
Expected Standard deviation
Measured size
size

S Final 5ns 2 ns
Error tolerance
Tuneability
 Active materials
• Piezzoelectricity : generate voltage in response to
applied stress
• Piezzoresistive : change in resistance in response
to applied stress
• Magnetostriction : change in shape as
consequence of applied magnetic field
• Magnetoresistance : change in electrical resistivity
in response to applied stress
• Semiconductors : gap in the electric band
structure
 Patterns and waves : crystals

1 nm 1 nm wavelength
electronic waves
 Photonic crystals

1 micrometer Infrared light

 Granular materials
• Sand
• Portland cement
• Plaster
Macroscopic particles characterized by a loss of energy
whenever the particles interact (mostly friction)

• Brazil nut effect (big on top)

• Salt cellar effect (clog)
• Compacted granular material must expand (or dilate) before it can deform
• No turbulence is almost impossible to achieve in granular materials
• Granular materials can support (small) shear stresses indefinitely
• Granular materials are often inhomogeneous and anisotropic
• Granular materials exhibit avalanches
 Cements
• Hydraulic cements (Portland cement)
Harden after combining with water, as a
result of chemical reaction with the mixing
water and, after hardening, retain strength
and stability even under water.
• Non Hydraulic cements set by reaction
with atmospheric carbon dioxide.
 Building with cement
• Dry sand : no cohesion
• Wet sand : cohesion by
capillary forces
• In concrete : dissolution
reaction generating
calcium silicate and
aluminate ions : calcium
silicate hydrate (C-S-H)
 Plaster (gypsum)
• When the dry plaster powder is mixed with
water, it re-forms into gypsum, initially as
a paste but eventually hardening into a
solid. The structure consists of sheets of
Ca²+ and SO4²- ions held together by
hydrogen bonds in the water molecules.
The grip between these sheets is easily
broken, so plaster is fairly soft.
Material science
 Characterization
Mechanic characterization
Thermo characterization (melting point)
Optical and electromagnetic characterization
(refractive index)
NMR (and other resonances)
Spectroscopy
Electrical characterization
 Material characterization
Idea :
– Probe a material
– And measure its response
• Probe : mechanically, electro-magnetically,
temperature, waves, particles, vary directions,
vary frequencies …

EXTREMELY COMPLEX
I’ll give here some very simple examples
 Instron :
mechanical testing

Impose : constant speed

Measures :
Force necessary to apply the
constant speed ( precision 0.1N)
Measures positions (precision :
0.01 mm)
Earth quake

Extension (mm)
 What do you measure ?
• Stress strain and surface :
How to measure Poisson’s ratio
• Poisson's Ratio :
1 - 2(VT ÷ VL)2 ÷ 2 - 2(VT ÷ VL)2

VT = Shear (transverse) Velocity

VL = Longitudinal Velocity

You need to measure sound speed in 2

directions simultaneously …
 Melting point
Kofler bench (for powders ! ):
 Refractive index

η 1 sin i1 = η 2 sin i2
η = ε rµ r
 Spectroscopy
• Study of matter and its properties by investigating
light, sound, or particles that are emitted,
absorbed or scattered by the matter under
investigation.

• Example of probes :
– IR light
– Visible light
– Magnetic Field
– Inelastic scattering of light to analyse vibrational and
rotational modes of molecules (Raman)
– Neutrons
Visible absorption spectra
Example of IR spectrum
 Case study : Resistance measuring

Input impedance !
 Experimental work
• Build a model to have estimates
• Everything is an approximation
• Nothing is really linear, it’s linear by
domain
• Contacts/joints/interfaces : always a
problem
• Everything varies with frequency !
• Everything depends of the time scale you
are using.