Materials science
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The widespread applications of materials science give rise to the title materials science and engineering. 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/or to troubleshoot. 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 (electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, calorimetry, nuclear microscopy (HEFIB) etc.).
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Classes of materials
Materials science encompasses various classes of materials, each of which may constitute a separate field. Some examples include:
Sub-fields of materials science
- Nanotechnology --- the creation and study of molecularly engineered materials (nanomaterials) with structures on the length scale of nanometers.
- Crystallography --- the study of the physics of crystals, including
- defects in crystals, such as grain boundaries and dislocations, and their effects on physical properties;
- diffraction techniques, such as x-ray crystallography, which are used for phase identification.
- Metallurgy --- the study of metals
- Ceramics, which can be subdivided into
- electronic materials such as semiconductors and
- structural ceramics such as RCC, polycrystalline silicon carbide and transformation toughened ceramics
- Biomaterials --- materials that can be used in the human body
- Tribology --- the study of the wear of materials due to friction and other factors
Note that some practitioners often consider rheology a sub-field of materials science, because it can cover any material that flows. However, modern rheology typically deals with non-Newtonian fluid dynamics, so it is often consider a sub-field of Continuum mechanics. See also granular material.
Topics that form the basis of materials science
- Thermodynamics, for phase stability, phase transformations and phase diagrams.
- Thermal analysis, Thermogravimetry, study changes in materials as function of combined temperature, time and interactions with gases.
- Kinetics, applied to the rates of phase transformations, thermal decomposition and diffusion.
- Solid-state chemistry --- the study of chemistry taking place within solids
- Solid-state physics --- usually considered the study of quantum effects in solid material, such as semiconduction or superconduction.
- Continuum mechanics --- the study of solids and fluids, modeling them as continuous materials.
Other topics
- Timeline of materials technology
- Bio-based materials
- Liquid crystal
- Important publications in materials science
de:Werkstoffwissenschaft fr:Sciences des matériaux ko:재료공학 nl:Materiaalkunde pt:Ciência dos materiais th:วัสดุศาสตร์ vi:Khoa học vật liệu zh:材料科学