Blog - Sense Central

Modern Material’s Needs

• Engine efficiency increases at high temperatures: requires high temperature withstanding materials • Use of nuclear energy requires solving problem with residues, or advances in nuclear waste processing. • Hypersonic flight requires materials that are light, strong and resist high temperatures. • Optical communications require optical fibers that absorb light negligibly. • Civil construction – materials for unbreakable windows. • Structures: materials that are strong like metals and resist corrosion like plastics.

Sep 14, 2021↗

Material Science 1 min read

Advanced Materials

Materials used in “High-Tec” applications, usually designed for maximum performance, and normally expensive. Examples are titanium alloys for supersonic airplanes, magnetic alloys for computer disks, special ceramics for the heat shield of the space shuttle, etc.

Sep 14, 2021↗

Material Science 3 min read

Classification of Materials

Like many other things, materials are classified in groups, so that our brain can handle the complexity. One could classify them according to structure, or properties, or use. The one that we will use is according to the way the atoms are bound together: Metals: The valence electrons are detached from atoms, and spread in an ‘electron sea’ that “glues” the ions together. Metals are usually strong, conduct electricity and heat well and are opaque to light (shiny if polished). Examples: aluminum, steel, brass, gold. Semiconductors: The bonding is covalent (electrons are shared between atoms). Their electrical properties depend extremely strongly on minute proportions of contaminants. They are opaque to visible light but transparent to the infrared. Examples: Si, Ge, GaAs. Ceramics: Atoms behave mostly like either positive or negative ions, and are bound by Coulomb forces between them. They are usually combinations of metals or semiconductors with oxygen, nitrogen or carbon (oxides, nitrides, and carbides).Examples: glass, porcelain, many minerals. Polymers: are bound by covalent forces and also by weak van der Waals forces, and usually based on H, C and other non-metallic elements. They decompose at moderate temperatures (100…

Sep 14, 2021↗

Material Science 1 min read

Why Study Materials Science and Engineering?

• To be able to select a material for a given use based on considerations of cost and performance. • To understand the limits of materials and the change of their properties with use. • To be able to create a new material that will have some desirable properties. All engineering disciplines need to know about materials. Even the most immaterial like software or system engineering depend on the development of new materials, which in turn alter the economics, like software-hardware trade-offs. Increasing applications of system engineering are in materials manufacturing (industrial engineering) and complex environmental systems.

Sep 14, 2021↗

Material Science 1 min read

Historical Perspective

Materials are so important in the development of civilization that we associate ages with them. In the origin of human life on earth, the Stone Age, people used only natural materials like stone, clay, skins, and wood. When people found copper and how to make it harder by alloying, the Bronze Age started about 3000 BC. The use of iron and steel, stronger materials that gave advantage in wars started at about 1200 BC. The next big step was the discovery of a cheap process to make steel around 1850, which enabled the railroads and the building of the modern infrastructure of the industrial world.

Sep 14, 2021↗

Material Science 3 min read

Importance of Materials

A material is defined as a substance (most often a solid, but other condensed phases can be included) that is intended to be used for certain applications. There are a myriad of materials around us—they can be found in anything from buildings to spacecraft’s. Materials can generally be divided into two classes: crystalline and non-crystalline. The traditional examples of materials are metals, ceramics and polymers. New and advanced materials that are being developed include semiconductors, nanomaterials, biomaterials etc. The material of choice of a given era is often a defining point. Phrases such as Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Steel Age are great examples. Originally deriving from the manufacture of ceramics and its putative derivative metallurgy, materials science is one of the oldest forms of engineering and applied science. Modern materials science evolved directly from metallurgy, which itself evolved from mining and (likely) ceramics and the use of fire. A major breakthrough in the understanding of materials occurred in the late 19th century, when the American scientist Josiah Willard Gibbs demonstrated that the thermodynamic properties related to atomic structure in various phases are related to the physical properties of a material. Important elements of modern materials science are a …

Sep 14, 2021↗

Material Science 1 min read

Introduction

Materials science, also commonly known as materials science and engineering, is an interdisciplinary field which deals with the discovery and design of new materials. This relatively new scientific field involves studying materials through the materials paradigm (synthesis, structure, properties and performance). It incorporates elements of physics and chemistry, and is at the forefront of Nano science and nanotechnology research. In recent years, materials science has become more widely known as a specific field of science and engineering.

Sep 14, 2021↗

Basics 3 min read