Engineering Materials

Engineering Materials is an interdisciplinary field that is applying the properties of matter to several areas of science and engineering. This scientific field finds out the relationship among the structure of materials at atomic / molecular scales and their macroscopic properties. It includes elements of applied chemistry and physics. Along with significant media attention focused on nanoscience and nanotechnology in current years, materials science has been propelled to the forefront at several universities. It is as well a significant part of forensic engineering and failure analysis. Materials science as well deals with fundamental properties and characteristics of materials.

                                           Figure: Depiction of two "Fullerene Nano-gears" along with multiple teeth.

The origin of materials science includes relating the needed properties and relative performance of a material in a specific application to the structure of the atoms and phases in that material by characterization. The main determinants of the structure of a material and so of its properties are its constituent chemical elements and the manner in which it has been processed into its last form. These characteristics, taken jointly and related through the laws of thermodynamics, govern a microstructure of material, and so its properties.