Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter Outline
✓ Historical Perspective,
✓ What is Materials Science and Engineering?
✓ Classification of Materials
✓ From Structure to Properties
✓ Processing Materials
✓ Selection of Materials

1.1 Historical Perspective

The three-age system: A system for classifying prehistoric artifacts according to successive stages of technological
development.

1) The Stone Age: Beginning of the Material Science - People began to make tools from stone. Natural materials:
stone, wood, clay, skins, etc.
2) The Bronze Age: The Stone Age ended about 5000 years ago with introduction of Bronze in the Far East. Bronze
is an alloy (a metal made up of more than one element), copper + < 25% of tin + other elements. Bronze: can be
hammered or cast into a variety of shapes, can be made harder by alloying, corrode only slowly after a surface oxide
film forms.
(*Copper Age: 4000-3000 BC)
(Alloy: is a metal composed of more than one element.)
3) The Iron Age: The Iron Age began about 3000 years ago and continues today.
Use of iron and steel, a stronger and cheaper material, changed drastically the daily life of a common person.

Understanding of the relationship among structure, properties, processing, and performance of materials.
Intelligent design of new materials.

1.2 Material Science and Engineering

What is Materials Science and Engineering?

Material science is the investigation of the relationship among processing, structure, properties, and performance of
materials.

Structure
✓ Subatomic level: Electronic structure of individual atoms that defines interaction among atoms (interatomic
bonding).
✓ Atomic level: Arrangement of atoms in materials (for the same atoms can have different properties, e.g.
two forms of carbon: graphite and diamond)
✓ Microscopic structure: Arrangement of small grains of material that can be identified by microscopy.
Macroscopic structure: Structural elements that may be viewed with the naked eye.
Angstrom = 1Å = 1/10,000,000,000 meter = 10 -10 m
 Nanometer = 10 nm = 1/1,000,000,000 meter = 10 -9 m e.g.: A human hair is ~ 50 μm
Micrometer = 1μm = 1/1,000,000 meter = 10 -6 m
Millimeter = 1mm = 1/1,000 meter = 10-3 m

Properties
Properties are the way the material responds to the environment and external forces.
✓ Mechanical properties – response to mechanical forces, strength, etc.
✓ Electrical properties - response to electrical, conductivity, etc.
✓ Magnetic properties - response to magnetic fields, etc.
✓ Thermal properties - are related to transmission of heat and heat capacity.
✓ Optical properties - include absorption, transmission and scattering of light.
✓ Deteriorative properties - Chemical stability in contact with the environment - corrosion resistance.

1.3 Classification of Materials

Metals
✓ Valence electrons are detached from atoms, and spread in an 'electron sea' that "glues" the ions together.
✓ Physical qualities: they are solid at ordinary temperatures; opaque, except in extremely thin films; good
electrical and thermal conductors; lustrous when polished; and have a crystalline structure when in the solid
state
✓ Common example: Steel
✓ Characteristics: Strong, Ductile, Conduct electricity, Heat well, Are shiny if polished

Metallic Elements

Periodic table of the elements with those elements that are inherently metallic in nature are shown in color.

Ceramics and Glasses

✓ Atoms behave like either positive or negative ions (bound by Coulomb forces).
✓ They are usually combinations of metals or semiconductors with oxygen, nitrogen or carbon (oxides,
nitrides, and carbides). e.g.: Glass and Porcelain

I. Ceramics (like metals): crystalline

Ceramics: can be made in a non-crystalline form (Glass) by simple processing techniques.
Crystalline: the constituent atoms are stacked together in a regular, repeating pattern.
Non-crystalline: the atoms are stacked in irregular, random patterns.
II. Glass: the general term for non-crystalline solids with compositions comparable to those of crystalline
ceramics.
III. Glass-ceramics: can be transformed from the glassy state to the crystalline state.
Characteristics
Hard, Brittle, Insulators

Ceramic Compounds
These elements can be combined to form an enormous range of ceramic materials!!!

Periodic table with ceramic compounds indicated by a

combination of one or more metallic elements (in light
color) with one or more nonmetallic elements (in dark
color).

Glass
Silicates (most common): Ordinary window glass (72% silica, remainder: Na 20 and CaO.)

Properties:
Brittle, Can transmit visible light, Chemically inert

Polymers
✓ also known as Plastics.
✓ are bound by covalent forces and also by weak van der Waals forces, and usually based on C and H.
✓ decompose at moderate temperatures (100 – 400 C), and are lightweight. Examples: plastics rubber.
✓ Engineered polymers are typically inexpensive and characterized by ease of formation and adequate
structural properties.
✓ Polymers are long-chain molecules composed of many mers bonded together.
✓ “mer” in polymer - is a single hydrocarbon molecule.

Examples of Polymers:
Polyethylene (PE): the most common commercial polymer (C2H4)n.

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), Polypropylene (PP), Polystyrene (PS)

Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), Polyhexamethylene adipamide (Nylon 6,6), Phenol formaldehyde (Bakelite),
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), Polycarbonate

Many important polymers, including polyethylene, are simply compounds of hydrogen and carbon. Others include
oxygen, nitrogen, fluorine, and silicon.
Elements associated with Polymers
 Periodic table with the elements associated
with commercial polymers in color.

Properties of Polymers

Desirable properties
Ductile, Lightweight, Low-cost

Limitations
Lower strength (compared with metals), Lower melting point (compared with ceramics and glasses),
Higher chemical reactivity (compared with ceramics and glasses)

Composites
✓ made up of combinations of metals, ceramics and polymers.
✓ involve virtually the entire table elements except for the noble gases.
✓ Fiberglass: best example of composite; glass fibers embedded in a polymer matrix.
o has the best properties of each component, producing a product that is superior to either of the
components separately.
o The high strength of the small-diameter glass fibers is combined with the ductility of the polymer
matrix to produce a strong material capable of withstanding the normal loading required of a
structural material.
✓ Wood is an excellent example of a natural material with useful mechanical properties because of its fiber-
reinforced structure.
✓ Concrete is a common example of an aggregate composite. Both rock and sand reinforce a complex
silicate cement matrix.

Engineering Application

Semi conductors

Technology has clearly revolutionized society, but solid-state electronics has revolutionized technology itself.-
James Shackelford
✓ are neither good electrical conductors nor good electrical insulators.
✓ Their ability to conduct electricity is intermediate.
✓ Do not fit into any of the four structural material categories based on atomic bonding.
✓ the bonding is covalent (electrons are shared between atoms).
✓ their electrical properties depend strongly on minute proportions of contaminants.
✓ Examples: Silicon (Si), Germanium (Ge), Gallium Arsenide (GaAs).

Elemental semiconductors
 Periodic table with the elemental semiconductors in
dark color and those elements that form
semiconducting compounds in light color. The
semiconducting compounds are composed of pairs
of elements from columns III and V (e.g., GaAs) or
from columns II and VI (e.g., CdS).

Biomaterials
Biomaterials are employed in components implanted into the human body for replacement of diseased or damaged
parts.
1.4 From Structure to Properties
To understand the properties or observable characteristics of engineering materials, it is necessary to understand
their structure on an atomic and/or microscopic scale.

Effect of Atomic Structure on the Major Properties

(Mechanical)

Tension

Contrast in mechanical behavior of (a)

Comparison of crystal structures aluminum (relatively ductile) and (b)
for (a) aluminum and (b) magnesium (relatively brittle) resulting from the
magnesium. atomic-scale structure shown in the left figure.

1.5 Selection of Materials

Which material do I now select for a particular application?
Materials selection is the final, practical decision in the engineering design process and can determine that design’s
ultimate success or failure. - James Shackelford

There are two separate decisions to be made.

✓ one must decide which general type of material is appropriate (e.g. metal or ceramic).
✓ the best specific material within that category must be found (e.g. is magnesium alloy preferable to
aluminum or steel?)

Considerations for Materials Selection: Strength, Ductility, Cost

 Fig. (a) Sequence of choices leading to selection
of metal as the appropriate type of material for
construction of a commercial gas cylinder. (b)
Commercial gas cylinders.

Composition, Bonding, Crystal Structure and Microstructure DEFINE Materials Properties

Composition

Bonding Crystal Structure

Thermomechanical
Processing

Microstructure

Future of Materials Science

Design of materials having specific desired characteristics directly from our knowledge of atomic structure.
✓ Miniaturization: “Nanostructured" materials, with microstructure that has length scales between 1 and 100
nanometers with unusual properties. Electronic components, materials for quantum computing.
✓ Smart materials: buildings that stabilize themselves in earthquakes…
✓ Environment-friendly materials: biodegradable plastics, advances in nuclear waste processing, etc.
✓ Biomimetics (Learning from Nature): shells and biological hard tissue can be as strong as the most advanced
laboratory-produced ceramics.