BITS Pilani

K K Birla Goa Campus Dr. Richa Singhal

BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus
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BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus
Everything we see and use is made up of materials

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BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus
The MARS Rovers “Spirit and Opportunity” are made up of materials such as
* Metals * Ceramics * Composites * Polymers * Semiconductors
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BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus
 What are Materials?
• Materials may be defined as substances of which
something is composed or made.
• We obtain materials from earth’s crust and
atmosphere.

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BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus
Materials & Human Civilization
• Development and advancement of human societies –
closely related with materials.
• Civilizations have been named based on the level of
their materials development

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 Industrial Revolution
• Driven by developments in the
areas of
– Textile manufacturing
– Mining
– Metallurgy
A Watt steam engine
– Transport
• Cheap coal - blast furnace -
large amounts of cast iron

The Iron Bridge 8

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21st century research & developments
Quantum computers Gene therapy

3D printing

Nanotechnology

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 Contd.
Superconductors Green technologies such as alternative fuels

Wearable electronics

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Materials Science & Engineering
Materials Science is primarily concerned with the
search for basic knowledge about the internal
structure, properties, and processing of materials.

Materials Engineering is mainly concerned with the

use of fundamental and applied knowledge of
materials so that the materials can be converted
into products needed or desired by society.

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 MATERIALS SCIENCE &
ENGINEERING
Basic Resultant knowledge of the structure, Applied
knowledge properties, processing, and knowledge
of materials performance of engineering materials of materials

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Basic components and their inter-relationship:

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Structure
Structure of a material means a description of the arrangement of
its internal components.
• 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
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eye.
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 Properties
Properties are the way the material responds to the environment
and external forces.

• Mechanical properties – response to mechanical forces, load,

etc. (e.g. elastic modulus, strength)
• Electrical and magnetic properties - response to electrical and
magnetic fields (e.g. electrical conductivity, dielectric constant)
• Thermal properties are related to transmission of heat (e.g.
thermal conductivity, heat capacity)
• Optical properties – stimulus is electromagnetic or light radiation
(refractive index, reflectivity)
• Deteriorative properties relate to the chemical reactivity of
materials. 15
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Example: Structure, Processing, &
Properties
 Structure vs Optical transmittance properties
 Aluminum oxide may be transparent, translucent, or opaque
depending on the material’s structure (i.e., single crystal vs.
polycrystal, and degree of porosity).
polycrystal: polycrystal:
single crystal no porosity some porosity

These differences in optical properties are a consequence of differences in

structure of these materials, which have resulted from the way the materials 16
were processed. BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus
Example: Structure, Processing, &
Properties
• Properties depend on structure
ex: hardness vs structure of steel
(d)
600
Hardness (BHN)

30 μm
500 (c)
400 (a) (b)
4 μm
300
30 μm
200 30 μm

100
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000
Cooling Rate (ºC/s)
• Processing can change structure
ex: structure vs cooling rate of steel 17
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Classification of Materials
 Metals
 Ceramics
 Polymers

 Composites: combination of two or more of the

above three basic material classes.

Advanced materials:
Semiconductors, Biomaterials, Smart materials,
Nano-engineered materials

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 Metals
 Composed of one or more metallic elements.
 Example: Iron, Copper, Aluminum
 May also contain non-metallic elements (C, N, O) in relatively
small amounts.
 Inorganic and have crystalline structure (atoms are arranged in
an orderly manner)
 Good thermal and electrical conductors.
 Mechanical characteristics: Relatively stiff and strong, yet ductile.

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 Ceramics
 They contain both metallic and non-metallic elements.
 Characterized by their higher resistance to high temperatures
and harsh environments than metals and polymers.
 Typically good insulators to passage of both heat and electricity.
 Less dense than most metals and alloys.
 They are harder and stiffer, but brittle in nature.
 They are mostly oxides, nitrides, and carbides of metals.
 Wide range: traditional (clay, silicate glass, cement) to advanced
(silicon carbide, alumina, silicon nitride).
 Used in high temperature, corrosive environments, various
furnaces, chemical processing systems.
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 Polymers
 Polymers are long-chain molecules composed of many
(100s to 1000s) monomers bonded together.
 Organic giant molecules and mostly non-crystalline.
 Typically have low densities
 Mechanical characteristics are dissimilar to the metallic and ceramic materials –
not as stiff and strong as other material types
 Generally poor conductors of electricity.
 Extremely ductile and pliable – easily formed into complex shapes.
 Relatively inert and unreactive in a large number of environments.
 Tendency to soften and/or decompose at modest temperatures – limits their
use.
 Applications: packaging, biomedical devices, optical devices, household items,
toys, etc.
 E.g.: Polyethylene (PE), Nylon, Teflon, Rubber, Poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC),
polystyrene (PS),etc.
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Polymers brought major impact of modern engineering technology on everyday life.
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Materials of Importance
Example: Carbonated beverage containers

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Composites
Composites are another set of materials made
up of some combination of individual materials
from the previous categories materials with
their own bonding characteristics.
• The excellent example is fiberglass, the
composite of glass fibersCharacteristic
embedded in a
of good composites
polymer matrix is producing a product that is
superior to either of the components
separately.

The resulting fiberglass is relatively

stiff, strong, flexible, and ductile.
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 Composites
• Consists of more than one kind of material; tailor-made to benefit from the
combination of best characteristics of each constituent.
• Many are composed of two phases; one is matrix–which is continuous and
surrounds the other, dispersed phase.
• Classified into:
 depending on type of reinforcement: fibrous (fibers in a matrix),
particulate (particles in a matrix)
 depending on type of matrix; metal matrix composite (MMC), polymer
matrix composite (PMC), ceramic matrix composite (CMC).
• Examples:
 Fiber glass
 Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite – carbon fibers that are
embedded within a polymer. Used in aircraft and aerospace applications.
 Concrete (gravels or steel rods reinforced in cement and sand)
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 Composites contd.
• Kevlar reinforcement is a popular application in modern
high-performance tires.
• Kevlar fiber reinforcements provide significant advances
over traditional fibers for polymer-matrix composites.
• Kevlar is a DuPont trade name for poly p-
phenyleneterephthalamide (PPD-T), a para-aramid fiber.
• Kevlar-reinforced polymers composites are used in
pressure vessels and tires. The strength-to-weight ratio
of Kevlar is five times higher than that of structural
steels.

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 Advanced Materials
• Can be defined as materials used in high-technology devices i.e.
which operates based on relatively intricate and sophisticated
principles (e.g. computers, air/space crafts, electronic gadgets,
etc).
• These are either traditional materials with enhanced properties
or newly developed materials with high-performance
capabilities. Thus, these are relatively expensive.
• Typical applications: integrated circuits, lasers, LCDs, fiber optics,
thermal protection for space shuttle, etc.
• Include Semiconductors, Biomaterials, Smart materials, Nano-
engineered materials.

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Semiconductors
• Semiconductors have electrical properties that are
intermediate between the electrical conductors (viz.
metals and metal alloys) and insulators (viz. ceramics and
polymers).
• Their electrical characteristics are extremely sensitive to
the presence of minute amounts of foreign atoms.
• Semiconductors have made possible the advent of
integrated circuitry that has totally revolutionized the
electronics and computer industries (not to mention our
lives) over the past few decades.

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 Biomaterials
• Components implanted into the human body for
replacement of damaged or diseased body parts.
• Primary requirements: must be compatible with body
tissues (i.e. must not cause adverse biological reactions),
must not produce toxic substances.
• E.g.: Stainless steel, Co-28Cr-6Mo, Ti-6Al-4V, ultra high
molecular weight polyethylene, high purity dense Al-oxide,
etc.

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Smart materials
• Materials which have the ability to sense external
environmental stimuli and respond by changing their
properties (mechanical, electrical or appearance), structure,
or functions.
• Stimulus: temperature, stress, light, humidity, electric and
magnetic fields
• Components of a smart material (or system) include some
type of sensor (that detects an input signal) and an actuator
(performs responsive and adaptive function).

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Common smart materials and
associated stimulus-response

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 Smart materials (contd.)
Examples:
• Shape memory alloys (eg. Ni-Ti, Cu-Zn-Al alloys)
• Piezoelectric materials
• Magnetostrictive materials
• Optical fibers
• Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)
 Example: Used in automobile airbags to sense both the
deceleration and the size of the person sitting in the car and
to deploy the airbag at a proper speed.

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Nanomaterials
• Materials that have a characteristic length scale smaller than
100 nm (1 nm = 10-9 m).
• They can be metallic, polymeric, ceramic, or composite.
• At the nanoscale, the properties of the material are neither
that of the molecular or atomic level nor that of the bulk
material.
• Example: Carbon nanofiber reinforced plastic: very light but
stronger than metals.

Carbon nanofiber imaged by 33

Scanning Electron Microscopy BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus

Materials Selection Process
1. Pick Application Determine required Properties
Properties: mechanical, electrical, thermal,
magnetic, optical, deteriorative.

2. Properties Identify candidate Material(s)

Material: structure, composition.

3. Material Identify required Processing

Processing: changes structure and overall shape
ex: casting, sintering, vapor deposition, doping
forming, joining, annealing.

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Case study – Material Selection

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BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus
Case study – Material Selection

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