What is Materials Science and why is it important?

Materials make up everything around us. From the inside of our phones to the buildings around us, materials and their properties are key to maintaining the society we live in. But how are materials designed and tested for the applications they are needed in? The answer to this is materials science.

What is it?

Materials science is defined as an interdisciplinary field combining physics, chemistry and engineering. It helps to understand the relationships between a materials structure and its properties. This enables the development of new materials for a sustainable future. For such a niche field, it is one of the most important disciplines for the future of engineering.

Why is it essential?

It is essential for many different areas. The first area is manufacturing. It can predict and control properties like strength, fracture resistance, defects and hardness. This means that materials can be manufactured in certain ways to ensure these properties are optimal for the materials purpose.

Another area is in sustainability. In a world where the need for new sustainable options is at its peak, material science really comes in hand with this. Scientists can develop recyclable, biodegradable and low-impact materials to reduce recourse waste. This also creates more industries, jobs and leads to economic growth.

Lastly, it can be useful for healthcare innovation. Biocompatible materials enable prosthetics, implants, drug-delivery systems and tissue engineering are some of the vital areas which are constantly needed to be improved and tested.

Diving deeper into Materials Science at Birmingham

Most materials scientists have jobs in research. At Birmingham, the School of Metallurgy and Materials partakes in many different research areas. Some of these include testing materials for the tokamak machine (a machine that uses powerful magnetic fields to confine a superheated plasma in a torus (donut) shape). This could lead to virtually limitless, zero-carbon electricity.

Other PhD students and professors help with battery technology such as hydrogen batteries. The University also helps in the development of high-performance ceramics for hypervelocity flights, with materials withstanding up to 3000oC. There are plenty of different and unique areas that materials research is needed for.

Thinking like a materials scientist

As part of a Materials Science and Engineering degree at Birmingham, questioning and thinking about materials is a key skill which is developed very early in the course.

Here is an example of the thought process of picking a material for a certain application:

• A materials scientist is told to pick a material for a frying pan.
• Is the hob conduction or gas? 
• If it is conduction, the frying pan must be made of a ferromagnetic material.
• What do you want the material to do?
• The material should conduct heat so it must have a high thermal conductivity throughout the material. It must also have a good heat capacity as it must retain heat whilst in use.
• Do you want the whole of the pan to conduct heat?
• Not always, so the handle could be made from a non-conductive material so it can be held whilst cooking.
• What are the other things to think about?
• The pan needs to be shock resistant so it does not break if accidentally dropped on the floor. It must also be able to resist being removed from applied heat to applied cold for example running it under a tap immediately after use. The pan must not warp when it is heated as it damages the structure of the pan and can lead to defects. It must be corrosion resistance as it can impact the quality of food and impact people eating the food. The pans material must be relevant to the price range of the pan. If it is a cheap pan, it will not be made with the best material possible. However, it must also be able to be manufactured as well as fitting the desired testing.

This shows you a brief look at how materials scientists initially think when manufacturing a product. They then would pick a material they know suits this application, run tests, compare from material databases and test the material for its application.

In summary, despite materials science being rather unknown compared to other engineering fields, it is one of the most important to the future of science and engineering. It controls our everyday lives without us knowing and is key in the world around us.