INTRODUCTION TO MATERIAL SCIENCE

Materials science and engineering is a multidisciplinary endeavour that has only recently taken on a recognisable form. The field's practitioners create and work with materials used to create products like machines, devices, and buildings. More specifically, the creation and application of knowledge relating the composition, structure, and processing of materials to their qualities and uses focuses on materials science and engineering. 

A "materials-designated degree" has the name of a material, a material process, or the term "material" in its title. Metallurgy, ceramics, polymer science or engineering, welding engineering, and materials science or engineering are just a few examples. Almost all materials-related degrees have so far been in metallurgy or ceramics. 

Total Materials’ Cycle 

• The Concept

It is said that all ‘Materials’ move in the Total Material’s Cycle; for instance, the man took the basics like oxygen, wood, and other substances in crude form and extracted and then later converted them into basic raw materials, simple metals, and chemicals. He transforms these basic materials into alloys, ceramics, electronic materials, polymers, composites, and other compositions to meet performance requirements.

He creates shapes or parts for assembly into products from transformed materials. When a product's useful life is up, it is discarded and returned to the soil or the environment as garbage. It could also be demolished to recover basic elements that can be reintroduced into the cycle. 

• Three-way interactions

The materials cycle is a worldwide system in which strong three-way interactions exist between materials, the environment, and energy supply and demand. The state of the ecosystem is largely determined by how carefully man moves materials through the cycle, which has repercussions at each stage. The energy used to extract a metal from ore, for example, does not need to be wasted again if the metal is recycled; therefore, materials crossing the cycle may represent an energy investment. Thus, recovering a pound of useful iron from scrap costs around 20% of the "energy cost" of extracting a pound of iron from ore. Copper accounts for around 5% of the total, whereas magnesium accounts for about 1.5 per cent.

• Material Cycle

Most materials scientists and engineers work on the part of the materials cycle that goes from raw materials through disassembling and recycling basic materials. Typically, events in this (or any other) area have ramifications elsewhere in the cycle or system. As a result, research and development can open up new and sometimes unexpected avenues around the cycle, with associated implications on energy and the environment.

The development of a magnetically levitated transportation system could significantly raise the demand for metals used in superconducting or magnetic alloys. The widespread deployment of nuclear power has the potential to alter fossil fuel usage patterns drastically and the pressures they place on transportation systems.

• Laws around  Material Cycle

External issues, like laws, can also disrupt the materials cycle. For example, the Clean Air Act of 1970 sparked a surge in demand for platinum in car exhaust-cleaning catalysts. Although catalysis has been questioned as to the greatest long-term solution to the problem, any platinum necessary will have to be imported, in large part, in the face of a significant trade deficit.

Environmental legislation will also necessitate considerable sulphur recovery from fuels, smelter, and stack emissions; by the end of the century, the yearly tonnage recovered might be twice that of domestic demand. Such consequences highlight the importance of approaching the materials cycle methodically and cautiously.

Types of Materials

The range of materials available is astounding. Metals, ceramics, semiconductors, dielectrics, glasses, polymers, and natural things such as wood, fibres, sand, and stone are all covered by materials science and engineering. 

We omit certain substances that might be referred to as "materials" in other situations. Foods, medications, water, and fossil fuels are examples of them. Biomedical materials, electronic materials, and structural materials are examples of materials whose purpose and type have been classed. This blurring of old classifications is due, in part, to our improving, if still imperfect, ability to custom-make materials for specific purposes.

Characteristics of the Materials

1. Use of Materials in everyday use

The environment, materials, and energy are all intertwined. Materials are essential to industrial and service technologies and national and international security and economy. Progress in materials has altered the housewife's kitchen: vinyl polymers in flooring, stainless steel in sinks, Pyroceram, and Teflon in cookware. 

The ordinary telephone comprises 42 of the 92 naturally occurring elements in its not-so-ordinary components. Polyethene, an excellent insulator for radar equipment, is just one of the many materials required for national security. According to one estimate, the production and shaping of materials account for roughly 20% of the nation's gross national product, but this figure is misleading; there would be no gross national product without materials.

2. Synthetic Fibres: a friend to households

Some materials have effects out of proportion to their price or the amount of time they are used in a given application. In the form of easy-care apparel, synthetic fibres have dramatically impacted homemakers' lives. Certain phosphor crystals, which result from years of study into materials that emit light when hit by electrons, can produce colour television images for less than 0.5 per cent of the set's production cost.

3. Low-cost materials work just as fine.

The qualities of particular materials are frequently used to judge whether or not a product will work. Ablative materials with a low cost are critical for the performance of the heat shield on atmospheric re-entry vehicles in human space flights. Progress in energy generation and delivery requires new or significantly improved materials. 

Home-building materials are at the other end of the spectrum, which, while crucial, do not need to be significantly enhanced to satisfy society's housing aspirations.

4. Textured materials

Materials are frequently used in various technologies and are less proprietary than the goods made from them. As a result, materials are more likely than individual products to provide fertile ground for research and development, including joint research and development. One example is certain "textured" materials and polycrystalline formations in which the processing stages determine the alignment of nearby crystals. 

Physicists, metallurgists, and even mathematicians worked together to develop the capacity to manipulate crystal orientation. The improved characteristics resulting are being used in a growing number of applications. Soft magnetic alloys for memory devices, orientated steels for transformers, high-elasticity phosphor bronze for electrical connectors, and steel sheets for car fenders, appliance housings, and other applications.

Further Reading

1. Pros and Cons of Technology for Ever-Evolving World
2. Topics of Persuasive Speech
3. Effective way to Reduce Stress - Causes and Techniques
4. (PDF) The Minamata Convention on Mercury