"Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries."
The study of the properties of materials and how they can be used in design.
Atomic Structure: Understanding the basic structure of atoms and how they interact with each other is essential to understanding material properties.
Materials Characterization: This includes various techniques to analyze and study the properties of materials such as microscopy, spectroscopy, and diffraction.
Mechanical Properties: These properties include strength, stiffness, durability, and toughness, which are essential for designing and developing materials for specific applications.
Thermodynamics: This topic deals with the relationship between heat, work, and energy, and how they affect material behavior.
Chemical Properties: Understanding how different chemicals interact with materials, and how reactions can alter material properties is necessary for designing new materials.
Materials Processing: This area includes various techniques to alter the properties of materials, such as casting, forming, welding, and machining.
Composite Materials: These are materials made up of two or more different materials, each with its own unique properties. Understanding how they work is crucial for industrial design applications.
Nanomaterials: These are materials with unique properties at the nanoscale level. Understanding the properties and behavior of these materials is becoming increasingly important in many industries.
Semiconductor Materials: These materials are used in electronic devices and are critical to the design and performance of modern electronics.
Biomaterials: These materials are used in medical applications, such as implants and artificial organs. They must be designed to be compatible with living tissue and to have specific properties, such as flexibility and durability.
Environmental Factors: Understanding how materials interact with the environment and how they degrade over time is critical for creating sustainable design solutions.
Material Selection and Design: This topic covers how to choose the right materials for a given application and how to design products with specific material properties in mind.
Material Testing: This is the process of testing materials to determine their properties and behavior under specific conditions.
Failure Analysis: Understanding why materials fail and how to prevent it is critical for designing safe and reliable products.
Manufacturing Processes: Familiarity with various industrial manufacturing processes and how they affect material properties is essential for designing products that can be manufactured at scale.
Mechanics of Materials: This field focuses on the behavior of materials under loads and stresses.
Manufacturing Processes: This field encompasses the methods of producing materials and products, including casting, forming, and shaping.
Composite Materials: This field focuses on the development and use of materials composed of two or more different types of material.
Nanomaterials: This field deals with developing materials that have structures on a nanometer scale, typically between 1 and 100 nanometers.
Biomaterials: This field encompasses the use of materials in medical devices, implants, and other biological applications.
Electronic Materials: This field deals with the properties and applications of materials used in electronics and photonics.
Polymeric Materials: This field deals with materials made up of long chains of molecules, such as plastics and synthetic fibers.
Metallurgy: This field focuses on the properties, structure, and processing of metals and alloys.
Ceramics: This field deals with the properties and applications of inorganic, non-metallic materials such as ceramics and glasses.
Materials Characterization: This field involves the use of various analytical techniques to study the properties and behavior of materials.
"The intellectual origins of materials science stem from the Age of Enlightenment, when researchers began to use analytical thinking from chemistry, physics, and engineering to understand ancient, phenomenological observations in metallurgy and mineralogy."
"As such, the field was long considered by academic institutions as a sub-field of these related fields."
"Beginning in the 1940s, materials science began to be more widely recognized as a specific and distinct field of science and engineering."
"The understanding of processing-structure-properties relationships is called the materials paradigm."
"This paradigm is used to advance understanding in a variety of research areas, including nanotechnology, biomaterials, and metallurgy."
"Materials science is also an important part of forensic engineering and failure analysis – investigating materials, products, structures, or components, which fail or do not function as intended, causing personal injury or damage to property."
"Such investigations are key to understanding, for example, the causes of various aviation accidents and incidents."
"Materials scientists emphasize understanding how the history of a material (processing) influences its structure, and thus the material's properties and performance."
"Materials science still incorporates elements of physics, chemistry, and engineering."
"Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries."
"Major technical universities around the world created dedicated schools for its study."
"The understanding of processing-structure-properties relationships is called the materials paradigm."
"...research areas, including nanotechnology, biomaterials, and metallurgy."
"...understand ancient, phenomenological observations in metallurgy and mineralogy."
"...investigating materials, products, structures, or components, which fail or do not function as intended, causing personal injury or damage to property."
"...investigating materials, products, structures, or components, which fail or do not function as intended..."
"Beginning in the 1940s, materials science began to be more widely recognized as a specific and distinct field of science and engineering."
"When researchers began to use analytical thinking from chemistry, physics, and engineering to understand ancient, phenomenological observations in metallurgy and mineralogy."
"...incorporates elements of physics, chemistry, and engineering."