Concepts of Materials Science
Adrian P Sutton
Abstract
This short book describes ten fundamental concepts – big ideas – of materials science. Some of them come from mainstream physics and chemistry, including thermodynamic stability and phase diagrams, symmetry, and quantum behaviour. Others are about restless atomic motion and thermal fluctuations, defects in crystalline materials as the agents of change in materials, nanoscience and nanotechnology, materials design and materials discovery, metamaterials, and biological matter as a material. A cornerstone of materials science is the idea that materials are complex systems that interact with their ... More
This short book describes ten fundamental concepts – big ideas – of materials science. Some of them come from mainstream physics and chemistry, including thermodynamic stability and phase diagrams, symmetry, and quantum behaviour. Others are about restless atomic motion and thermal fluctuations, defects in crystalline materials as the agents of change in materials, nanoscience and nanotechnology, materials design and materials discovery, metamaterials, and biological matter as a material. A cornerstone of materials science is the idea that materials are complex systems that interact with their environments and display the emergence of new science from the collective behaviour of atoms and defects. Great attention is paid to the clarity of explanations using only high school algebra and quoting the occasional useful formula. Exceptionally, elementary calculus is used in the chapter on metamaterials. It is not a text-book, but it offers undergraduates and their teachers a unique overview and insight into materials science. It may also help graduates of other subjects to decide whether to study materials science at postgraduate level.
Keywords:
Thermodynamics,
Phase diagram,
Change in materials,
Crystal defect,
Symmetry,
Quantum behaviour,
Nanoscience and nanotechnology,
Materials design,
Collective behaviour,
Complex system,
Metamaterial,
Biological matter
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2021 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780192846839 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2021 |
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780192846839.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Adrian P Sutton, author
Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Physics, Imperial College London
More
Less
