MATERIALS SCIENCE/ENGINEERING

Materials science or materials engineering is an interdisciplinary field involving the

properties of matter and its applications to various areas of science and engineering. This science
investigates the relationship between the structure of materials at atomic or molecular scales and
their macroscopic properties. It includes elements of applied physics and chemistry, as well as
chemical, mechanical, civil and electrical engineering. It is also an important part of forensic
engineering and failure analysis. The material science also deals with fundamental properties and
characteristics of material.

The material of choice of a given era is often its defining point; the Stone Age, Bronze
Age, and Steel Age are examples of this. Materials science is one of the oldest forms of
engineering and applied science, deriving from the manufacture of ceramics. Modern materials
science evolved directly from metallurgy, which itself evolved from mining. Important elements of
modern materials science are a product of the space race: the understanding and engineering of
the metallic alloys, and silica and carbon materials, used in the construction of space vehicles
enabling the exploration of space. Materials science has driven, and been driven by, the
development of revolutionary technologies such as plastics, semiconductors, and biomaterials.

Fundamentals

In materials science, rather than haphazardly looking for and discovering materials and
exploiting their properties, the aim is instead to understand materials so that new materials with
the desired properties can be created.

Materials in industry

Radical materials advances can drive the creation of new products or even new
industries, but stable industries also employ materials scientists to make incremental
improvements and troubleshoot issues with currently used materials. Industrial applications of
materials science include materials design, cost-benefit tradeoffs in industrial production of
materials, processing techniques (casting, rolling, welding, ion implantation, crystal growth, thin-
film deposition, sintering, glassblowing, etc.), and analytical techniques (

Besides material characterisation, the material scientist/engineer also deals with the
extraction of materials and their conversion into useful forms. Thus ingot casting, foundry
techniques, blast furnace extraction, and electrolytic extraction are all part of the required
knowledge of a metallurgist/engineer. Often the presence, absence or variation of minute
quantities of secondary elements and compounds in a bulk material will have a great impact on
the final properties of the materials produced, for instance, steels are classified based on 1/10th
and 1/100 weight percentages of the carbon and other alloying elements they contain. Thus, the
extraction and purification techniques employed in the extraction of iron in the blast furnace will
have an impact of the quality of steel that may be produced.

The study of metal alloys is a significant part of materials science. Of all the metallic
alloys in use today, the alloys of iron (steel, stainless steel, cast iron, tool steel, alloy steels) make
up the largest proportion both by quantity and commercial value. Iron alloyed with various
proportions of carbon gives low, mid and high carbon steels. For the steels, the hardness and
tensile strength of the steel is directly related to the amount of carbon present, with increasing
carbon levels also leading to lower ductility and toughness. The addition of silicon and
graphitization will produce cast irons (although some cast irons are made precisely with no
graphitization). The addition of chromium, nickel and molybdenum to carbon steels (more than
10%) gives us stainless steels.

Other significant metallic alloys are those of aluminium, titanium, copper and magnesium.
Copper alloys have been known for a long time (since the Bronze Age), while the alloys of the
other three metals have been relatively recently developed. Due to the chemical reactivity of
these metals, the electrolytic extraction processes required were only developed relatively
recently. The alloys of aluminium, titanium and magnesium are also known and valued for their
high strength-to-weight ratios and, in the case of magnesium, their ability to provide
electromagnetic shielding. These materials are ideal for situations where high strength-to-weight
ratios are more important than bulk cost, such as in the aerospace industry and certain
automotive engineering applications.

Other than metals, polymers and ceramics are also an important part of materials
science. Polymers are the raw materials (the resins) used to make what we commonly call
plastics. Plastics are really the final product, created after one or more polymers or additives have
been added to a resin during processing, which is then shaped into a final form. Polymers which
have been around, and which are in current widespread use, include polyethylene,
polypropylene, PVC, polystyrene, nylons, polyesters, acrylics, polyurethanes, and
polycarbonates. Plastics are generally classified as "commodity", "specialty" and "engineering"
plastics.
 PVC (polyvinyl-chloride) is widely used, inexpensive, and annual production quantities
are large. It lends itself to an incredible array of applications, from artificial leather to electrical
insulation and cabling, packaging and containers. Its fabrication and processing are simple and
well-established. The versatility of PVC is due to the wide range of plasticisers and other
additives that it accepts. The term "additives" in polymer science refers to the chemicals and
compounds added to the polymer base to modify its material properties.

Polycarbonate would be normally considered an engineering plastic (other examples

include PEEK, ABS). Engineering plastics are valued for their superior strengths and other
special material properties. They are usually not used for disposable applications, unlike
commodity plastics.

Specialty plastics are materials with unique characteristics, such as ultra-high strength,
electrical conductivity, electro-fluorescence, high thermal stability, etc.

Classes of materials (by bond types)

Materials science encompasses various classes of materials, each of which may

constitute a separate field. Materials are sometimes classified by the type of bonding present
between the atoms:
Ionic crystals
Covalent crystals
Metals
Intermetallics
Semiconductors
Polymers
Composite materials
Vitreous materials

Ionic bond

An ionic bond is a type of chemical bond that involves a metal and a non-metal ion (or
polyatomic ions such as ammonium) through electrostatic attraction. In short, it is a bond formed
by the attraction between two oppositely charged ions. The metal donates one or more electrons,
forming a positively charged ion or cation with a stable electron configuration. These electrons
then enter the non metal, causing it to form a negatively charged ion or anion which also has a
stable electron configuration. The electrostatic attraction between the oppositely charged ions
causes them to come together and form a bond.

Covalent bond

A covalent bond is a form of chemical bonding that is characterized by the sharing of

pairs of electrons between atoms, or between atoms and other covalent bonds. In short,
attraction-to-repulsion stability that forms between atoms when they share electrons is known as
covalent bonding.

Metals
In chemistry, a metal is an element, compound, or alloy characterized by high electrical
conductivity. In a metal, atoms readily lose electrons to form positive ions (cations); those ions
are surrounded by delocalized electrons, which are responsible for the conductivity. The thus
produced solid is held by electrostatic interactions between the ions and the electron cloud, which
are called metallic bonds.

Intermetallics
Intermetallics or intermetallic compounds is a term that is used in a number of different
ways. Most commonly it refers to solid state phases involving metals. There is a "research
definition" adhered to generally in scientific publications, and a wider "common use" term. There
is also a completely different use in coordination chemistry, where it has been used to refer to
complexes containing two or more different metals.

Note that many intermetallic compounds are often simply called alloys, even though
strictly speaking they are not. For example, complex metallic alloys are intermetallic compounds
with large unit cells.

Semiconductor
Semiconductor is a material that has a resistivity value between that of a conductor and
an insulator. The conductivity of a semiconductor material can be varied under an external
electrical field. Devices made from semiconductor materials are the foundation of modern
electronics, including radio, computers, telephones, and many other devices. Semiconductor
devices include the transistor, many kinds of diodes including the light-emitting diode, the silicon
controlled rectifier, and digital and analog integrated circuits. Solar photovoltaic panels are large
semiconductor devices that directly convert light energy into electrical energy. In a metallic
conductor, current is carried by the flow of electrons. In semiconductors, current can be carried
either by the flow of electrons or by the flow of positively-charged "holes" in the electron structure
of the material.
Silicon is used to create most semiconductors commercially. Dozens of other materials
are used, including germanium, gallium arsenide, and silicon carbide. A pure semiconductor is
often called an “intrinsic” semiconductor. The conductivity, or ability to conduct, of semiconductor
material can be drastically changed by adding other elements, called “impurities” to the melted
intrinsic material and then allowing the melt to solidify into a new and different crystal. This
process is called "doping".

Polymers
Natural polymeric materials such as shellac, amber, and natural rubber have been in use
for centuries. Biopolymers such as proteins and nucleic acids play crucial roles in biological
processes. A variety of other natural polymers exist, such as cellulose, which is the main
constituent of wood and paper.

The list of synthetic polymers includes synthetic rubber, Bakelite, neoprene, nylon, PVC,
polystyrene, polyacrylonitrile, PVB, silicone, and many more.

Composite materials
Composite materials (or composites for short) are engineered materials made from two
or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties which
remain separate and distinct on a macroscopic level within the finished structure. Bottles, or
eyewear. Examples of such materials include, but are not limited to, soda-lime glass, borosilicate
glass, acrylic glass, sugar glass, isinglass (Muscovy-glass), or aluminium oxynitride. In the
technical sense, glass is an inorganic product of fusion which has been cooled through the glass
transition to a rigid condition without crystallizing.

In the scientific sense the term glass is often extended to all amorphous solids (and melts
that easily form amorphous solids), including plastics, resins, or other silica-free amorphous
solids. In addition, besides traditional melting techniques, any other means of preparation are
considered, such as ion implantation, and the sol-gel method. However, glass science and
physics commonly includes only inorganic amorphous solids, while plastics and similar organics
are covered by polymer science, biology and further scientific disciplines.

Sub-fields of modern materials science

Nanotechnology – rigorously, the study of materials where the effects of quantum confinement,
the Gibbs-Thomson effect, or any other effect only present at the nanoscale is the defining
property of the material; but more commonly, it is the creation and study of materials whose
defining structural properties are anywhere from less than a nanometer to one hundred
nanometers in scale, such as molecularly engineered materials.

Microtechnology - study of materials and processes and their interaction, allowing

microfabrication of structures of micrometric dimensions, such as MicroElectroMechanical
Systems (MEMS).

Crystallography – the study of how atoms in a solid fill space, the defects associated with crystal
structures such as grain boundaries and dislocations, and the characterization of these structures
and their relation to physical properties.

Materials Characterization – such as diffraction with x-rays, electrons, or neutrons, and various
forms of spectroscopy and chemical analysis such as Raman spectroscopy, energy-dispersive
spectroscopy (EDS), chromatography, thermal analysis, electron microscope analysis, etc., in
order to understand and define the properties of materials. See also List of surface analysis
methods

Metallurgy – the study of metals and their alloys, including their extraction, microstructure and
processing.

Biomaterials – materials that are derived from and/or used with biological systems.

Electronic and magnetic materials – materials such as semiconductors used to create integrated
circuits, storage media, sensors, and other devices.

Tribology – the study of the wear of materials due to friction and other factors.
Surface science/Catalysis – interactions and structures between solid-gas solid-liquid or solid-
solid interfaces.

Ceramography – the study of the microstructures of high-temperature materials and refractories,

including structural ceramics such as RCC, polycrystalline silicon carbide and transformation
toughened ceramics
Glass Science – any non-crystalline material including inorganic glasses, vitreous metals and
non-oxide glasses.
Forensic engineering – the study of how products fail, and the vital role of the materials of
construction

Forensic materials engineering – the study of material failure, and the light it sheds on how
engineers specify materials in their product

Textile Reinforced Materials - materials in the form of ceramic or concrete are reinforced with a
primarily woven or non-woven textile structure to impose high strength with comparatively more
flexibility to withstand vibrations and sudden jerk

Materials properties

Mechanical properties

• Young's modulus -In solid mechanics, Young's modulus (E) is a measure of the stiffness
of an isotropic elastic material. It is also known as the Young modulus, modulus of
elasticity, elastic modulus (though Young's modulus is actually one of several elastic
moduli such as the bulk modulus and the shear modulus) or tensile modulus. It is defined
as the ratio of the uniaxial stress over the uniaxial strain in the range of stress in which
Hooke's Law holds. This can be experimentally determined from the slope of a stress-
strain curve created during tensile tests conducted on a sample of the material.

• Specific modulus- Specific modulus is a materials property consisting of the elastic

modulus per mass density of a material. It is also known as the stiffness to weight ratio or
specific stiffness. High specific modulus materials find wide application in aerospace
applications where minimum structural weight is required. The dimensional analysis
yields units of distance squared per time squared.

• Tensile strength- Tensile strength (σUTS or SU ) is indicated by the maxima of a stress-

strain curve and, in general, indicates when necking will occur. As it is an intensive
property, its value does not depend on the size of the test specimen. It is, however,
dependent on the preparation of the specimen and the temperature of the test
environment and material.
There are three definitions of tensile strength:
 Yield strength -The stress at which material strain changes from elastic deformation to
plastic deformation, causing it to deform permanently.
Ultimate strength -The maximum stress a material can withstand when subjected to
tension, compression or shearing. It is the maximum stress on the stress-strain
curve.
Breaking strength -The stress coordinate on the stress-strain curve at the point of
rupture.

• Compressive strength -Compressive strength is the capacity of a material to withstand

axially directed pushing forces. When the limit of compressive strength is reached,
materials are crushed. Concrete can be made to have high compressive strength, e.g.
many concrete structures have compressive strengths in excess of 50 MPa, whereas a
material such as soft sandstone may have a compressive strength as low as 5 or 10
MPa.

• Shear strength- Shear strength in engineering is a term used to describe the strength of a
material or component against the type of yield or structural failure where the material or
component fails in shear.

• Yield strength- The yield strength or yield point of a material is defined in engineering and
materials science as the stress at which a material begins to deform plastically. Prior to
the yield point the material will deform elastically and will return to its original shape when
the applied stress is removed. Once the yield point is passed some fraction of the
deformation will be permanent and non-reversible.

• Ductility- Ductility is a mechanical property used to describe the extent to which materials
can be deformed plastically without fracture. In material science, ductility specifically
refers to a material's ability to deform under tensile stress; this is often characterized by
the material's ability to be stretched into a wire. Malleability, a similar concept, refers to a
material's ability to deform under compressive stress; this is often characterized by the
material's ability to form a thin sheet by hammering or rolling.

• Poisson's ratio -Poisson's ratio (ν), named after Siméon Poisson, is the ratio, when the
sample is stretched, of the contraction or transverse strain (normal to the applied load), to
the extension or axial strain (in the direction of the applied load).
 • Specific weight- The specific weight (also known as the unit weight) is the weight per unit
volume of a material. The symbol of specific weight is γ (the Greek letter Gamma).

Electrical properties

• Electrical conductivity-Electrical conductivity or specific conductance is a measure of a

material's ability to conduct an electric current. When an electrical potential difference is
placed across a conductor, its movable charges flow, giving rise to an electric current.

• Permittivity- Permittivity is a physical quantity that describes how an electric field affects,
and is affected by, a dielectric medium, and is determined by the ability of a material to
polarize in response to the field, and thereby reduce the total electric field inside the
material. Thus, permittivity relates to a material's ability to transmit (or "permit") an
electric field.

• Dielectric strength- In physics, the term dielectric strength has the following meanings:
Of an insulating material, the maximum electric field strength that it can withstand
intrinsically without breaking down, i.e., without experiencing failure of its insulating
properties. For a given configuration of dielectric material and electrodes, the minimum
electric field that produces breakdown. The maximum electric stress the dielectric
material can withstand without breakdown.

• Piezoelectric constants-Piezoelectricity is the ability of some materials (notably crystals

and certain ceramics, including bone) to generate an electric potential[1] in response to
applied mechanical stress.

• Seebeck coefficient-The thermopower, or thermoelectric power (also called the Seebeck

coefficient) of a material is a measure of the magnitude of an induced thermoelectric
voltage in response to a temperature difference across that material. The thermopower
has units of (V / K).

Thermal properties

• Thermal conductivity-In physics, thermal conductivity, k, is the property of a material that

indicates its ability to conduct heat.
• Thermal expansion-Thermal expansion is the tendency of a matter to change in volume
in response to a change in temperature. When a substance is heated, its constituent
particles begin moving and become active thus maintaining a greater average separation.
Materials which interact with increasing temperature are rare ; this effect is limited in size,
and only occurs within limited temperature ranges. The degree of expansion divided by
the change in temperature is called the material's coefficient of thermal expansion and
generally varies with temperature.

• Emissivity-The emissivity of a material (usually written ε or e) is the ratio of energy

radiated by a particular material to energy radiated by a black body at the same
temperature. It is a measure of a material's ability to radiate absorbed energy.

• Coefficient of thermal expansion-

• Specific heat-Specific heat capacity, also known simply as specific heat, is the measure
of the heat energy required to increase the temperature of a unit quantity of a substance
by a certain temperature interval.

• Heat of vaporization-The enthalpy of vaporization, (symbol ΔvH), also known as the heat
of vaporization or heat of evaporation, is the energy required to transform a given
quantity of a substance into a gas.

• Heat of fusion-The standard enthalpy of fusion (symbol: ΔHfus), also known as the heat
of fusion or specific melting heat, is the amount of thermal energy which must be
absorbed or evolved for 1 mole of a substance to change states from a solid to a liquid or
vice versa. It is also called the latent heat of fusion or the enthalpy change of fusion, and
the temperature at which it occurs is called the melting point.

• Pyrophoricity-A pyrophoric substance (from Greek purophoros, "fire-bearing") will ignite

spontaneously; that is, its autoignition temperature is below room temperature.

• Flammability-Flammability is defined at how easily something will burn or ignite, causing

fire or combustion.

• Critical temperature-In physical chemistry, thermodynamics, chemistry and condensed

matter physics, a critical point, also called a critical state, specifies the conditions
(temperature, pressure and sometimes composition) at which a phase boundary ceases
 to exist. There are multiple types of critical points such as vapor-liquid critical points and
liquid-liquid critical points.

• Glass transition temperature-The Glass transition temperature, Tg, is the temperature at

which an amorphous solid, such as glass or a polymer, becomes brittle on cooling, or soft
on heating.

• Melting point-The melting point of a solid is the temperature range at which it changes
state from solid to liquid.

• Boiling point-The boiling point of an element or a substance is the temperature at which

the vapor pressure of the liquid equals the environmental pressure surrounding the
liquid.] A liquid in a vacuum environment has a lower boiling point than when the liquid is
at atmospheric pressure. A liquid in a high pressure environment has a higher boiling
point than when the liquid is at atmospheric pressure. In other words, the boiling point of
liquids varies with and depends upon the surrounding environmental pressure.

• Flash point- the flash point of a flammable liquid is the lowest temperature at which it can
form an ignitable mixture in air.

• Curie point- The Curie point of a ferromagnetic material is the temperature above which it
loses its characteristic ferromagnetic ability (768°C or 1414 °F for iron).

Chemical properties

• pH- pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity of a solution. Pure water is said to be

neutral. The pH for pure water at 25 °C (77 °F) is close to 7.0. Solutions with a pH less
than 7 are said to be acidic and solutions with a pH greater than 7 are said to be basic or
alkaline.

• Hygroscopy- Hygroscopy is the ability of a substance to attract water molecules from the
surrounding environment through either absorption or adsorption.

• Surface energy- Surface energy quantifies the disruption of intermolecular bonds that
occurs when a surface is created.

• Surface tension- Surface tension is an attractive property of the surface of a liquid. It is

what causes the surface portion of liquid to be attracted to another surface, such as that
 of another portion of liquid (as in connecting bits of water or as in a drop of mercury that
forms a cohesive ball).

• Reactivity- Reactivity (chemistry), the rate at which a chemical substance tends to

undergo a chemical reaction,

• Corrosion resistance- Corrosion can be defined as the disintegration of a material into its
constituent atoms due to chemical reactions with its surroundings.

Magnetic properties

• Permeability- In electromagnetism, permeability is the degree of magnetization of a

material that responds linearly to an applied magnetic field.

• Hysteresis- Hysteresis phenomena occur in magnetic and ferromagnetic materials, as

well as in the elastic, electric, and magnetic behavior of materials, in which a lag occurs
between the application and the removal of a force or field and its subsequent effect.

Optical properties

• Absorptivity-

• Reflectivity- In photometry and heat transfer, reflectivity is the fraction of incident radiation
reflected by a surface

• Refractive index- The refractive index (or index of refraction) of a medium is a measure of
how much the speed of light (or other waves such as sound waves) is reduced inside the
medium.

• Color- Color or colour (see spelling differences) is the visual perceptual property
corresponding in humans to the categories called red, yellow, blue and others. Color
derives from the spectrum of light (distribution of light energy versus wavelength)
interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors.

• Photosensitivity- Certain electronic devices, such as photodiodes and charge-coupled

devices, are designed to be sensitive to light. They are constructed to take advantage of
the photoelectric effect, the emission of electrons from matter upon the absorption of
electromagnetic radiation. When light (one form of electromagnetic radiation) impinges on
 the active surface of such a device, electrical current flowing through or electrical charge
stored in the device will increase or decrease in proportion to the intensity and
wavelength of the light. This trait allows the device to perform regulating and sensing
functions of many kinds.

• Transmittance-In optics and spectroscopy, transmittance is the fraction of incident light at

a specified wavelength that passes through a sample. Specifically, visible transmittance
(VT) is this fraction for visible light.

• Luminosity- In photometry, luminosity is sometimes incorrectly used to refer to luminance,

which is the density of luminous intensity in a given direction. The SI unit for luminance is
candela per square metre.

Acoustical properties
• Acoustical absorption
• Speed of sound

Radiological properties
• Neutron cross-section
• Specific activity

Biological properties
• Toxicity