Introduction

Classification of Materials

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 Classification of Materials

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 Ashby Plots

Why Log(P) vs Log(P)?

What materials are toughest

against fracture?

Does density of materials play

a role?

Does this conform to your

experience?

Where are we going to use this information?

We will use these for design!

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 Ashby Plots

Where are we going to use this information?

We will use these for design!
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 Development of materials over time

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 Classes and Properties: Metals

Distinguishing features
• Atoms arranged in a regular repeating structure (crystalline)
• Relatively good strength (defined later)
• Dense
• Malleable or ductile: high plasticity (defined later)
• Resistant to fracture: tough
• Excellent conductors of electricity and heat
• Opaque to visible light
• Shiny appearance

• Thus, metals can be formed and machined easily, and are usually long-lasting materials.

• They do not react easily with other elements, however, metals such as Fe and Al do form
compounds readily (such as ores) so they must be processed to extract base metals.

• One of the main drawbacks is that metals do react with chemicals in the environment,
such as iron-oxide (rust).

• Many metals do not have high melting points, making them useless for many applications.

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 Classes and Properties: Metals

Elemental metals are in yellow

• we need to recall and use knowledge from the periodic table

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 Classes and Properties: Metals

Applications
• Electrical wiring
• Structures: buildings, bridges, etc.
• Automobiles: body, chassis, springs, engine block, etc.
• Airplanes: engine components, fuselage, landing gear assembly, etc.
• Trains: rails, engine components, body, wheels
• Machine tools: drill bits, hammers, screwdrivers, saw blades, etc.
• Shape memory materials: eye glasses
• Magnets
• Catalysts

Examples
• Pure metal elements (Cu, Fe, Zn, Ag, etc.)
• Alloys (Cu-Sn=bronze, Cu-Zn=brass, Fe-C=steel, Pb-Sn=solder, NiTinol)
• Intermetallic compounds (e.g. Ni3Al)

What’s the largest use of shape-memory nitinol?

catheters, stents, and superelastic needles

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 Classes and Properties: Ceramics

Distinguishing features
• Except for glasses, atoms are regularly arranged (crystalline)
• Composed of a mixture of metal and nonmetal atoms
• Lower density than most metals
• Stronger than metals
• Low resistance to fracture: low toughness or brittle
• Low ductility or malleability: low plasticity
• High melting point
• Poor conductors of electricity and heat
• Single crystals are transparent

• Where metals react readily with chemicals in the environment and have low application
temperatures in many cases, ceramics do not suffer from these drawbacks.

• Ceramics have high-resistance to environment as they are essentially metals that have
already reacted with the environment, e.g. Alumina (Al2O3) and Silica (SiO2, Quartz).

• Ceramics are heat resistant. Ceramics form both in crystalline and non-crystalline phases
because they can be cooled rapildy from the molten state to form glassy materials.

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 Classes and Properties: Ceramics

Elemental occurring in ceramics are in blue

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 Classes and Properties: Ceramics

Applications
• Electrical insulators
• Abrasives
• Thermal insulation and coatings
• Windows, television screens, optical fibers (glass)
• Corrosion resistant applications
• Electrical devices: capacitors, varistors, transducers, etc.
• Highways and roads (concrete)
• Biocompatible coatings (fusion to bone)
• Self-lubricating bearings
• Magnetic materials (audio/video tapes, hard disks, etc.)
• Optical wave guides
• Night-vision

Examples
• Simple oxides (SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, MgO)
• Mixed-metal oxides (SrTiO3, MgAl2O4)
• Nitrides (Si3N4, AlN, GaN, BN, and TiN, which are used for hard coatings.)

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 Classes and Properties: Polymers

Distinguishing features
• Composed primarily of C and H (hydrocarbons)
• Low melting temperature.
• Some are crystals, many are not.
• Most are poor conductors of electricity and heat.
• Many have high plasticity.
• A few have good elasticity.
• Some are transparent, some are opaque

• Polymers are attractive because they are usually lightweight and inexpensive to make,
and usually very easy to process, either in molds, as sheets, or as coatings.

• Most are very resistant to the environment.

• They are poor conductors of heat and electricity, and tend to be easy to bend, which
makes them very useful as insulation for electrical wires. They are also

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 Classes and Properties: Polymers

Two main types of polymers are thermosets and thermoplastics.

• Thermosets are cross-linked polymers that form 3-D networks, hence are strong and rigid.

• Thermoplastics are long-chain polymers that slide easily past one another when heated,
hence, they tend to be easy to form, bend, and break.

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 Classes and Properties: Polymers

Elements that compose polymers: limited

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 Classes and Properties: Polymers

Applications and Examples

• Adhesives and glues
• Containers
• Moldable products (computer casings, telephone handsets, disposable razors)
• Clothing and upholstery material (vinyls, polyesters, nylon)
• Water-resistant coatings (latex)
• Biodegradable products (corn-starch packing “peanuts”)
• Biomaterials (organic/inorganic intefaces)
• Liquid crystals
• Low-friction materials (teflon)
• Synthetic oils and greases
• Gaskets and O-rings (rubber)
• Soaps and surfactants

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 Classes and Properties: Semiconductors

Distinguishing features
• Made primarily from metalloids
• Regular arrangement of atoms (crystals, but not, e.g., solar cell amorphous Si)
• Extremely controlled chemical purity
• Adjustable conductivity of electricity
• Opaque to visible light
• Shiny appearance
• Some have good plasticity, but others are fairly brittle
• Some have an electrical response to light

• Semiconductors define the Digitial Revolution and Information Age.

• Starting with extremely pure crystalline form, their electrical conductions can be
controlled by impurity doping (and defect).

• The result is a tiny electrical switching called a "transistor". Transistors (at present)
can be packed to about 1 billion in the size of a Lincoln Penny.

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 Classes and Properties: Semiconductors

Elements occurring in semiconductors

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 Classes and Properties: Semiconductors

Applications and Examples

• Computer CPUs
• Electrical components (transistors, diodes, etc.)
• Solid-state lasers
• Light-emitting diodes (LEDs)
• Flat panel displays
• Solar cells
• Radiation detectors
• Microelectromechanical devices (MEMS)
• Examples: Silicon, Germanium, Gallium Arsenic, and
Indium Antimony

Is Diamond a semiconductor?

• Diamond is a good electrical insulator, having a resistivity of 100 GΩ.

• Some natural blue diamonds are an exception and are semiconductors due to
substitutional boron impurities replacing carbon atoms

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 Blue Diamond

• Some natural blue diamonds are an exception and are semiconductors due to
substitutional boron impurities replacing carbon atoms
• Firstly, the particular minerals identified in these inclusions are only found at
extremely high pressures, very deep in the Earth
• For comparison, this is approximately four times deeper than most other kinds of
diamonds

These blue gems may have originally been derived from ancient oceans – Nature Journal 2018
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 Design requirements – Example
• Select a material for the teeth of the
scoop of a digger truck.
• To do so, you need to prioritize the
material properties that matter.
• What are they?

• The teeth will be used in a brutal way to cut earth, scoop stones, crunch rock, often in
unpleasant environments (ditches, sewers, fresh and salt water and worse), and their
maintenance will be neglected.
• These translate into a need for high hardness, H, to resist wear, and high fracture
toughness, K1c, so they don’t snap off.
• Does the cost of the material matter?
• It is worth paying for good teeth to avoid expensive downtime.
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 Design requirements – Example
• Select a material for energy-efficient
cookware.
• What thermal property are you looking
for?
• And, apart from the mechanical
properties discussed earlier, what other
material behaviour will be important?

• To be energy-efficient, the pan must have a high thermal conductivity, k, to transmit and
spread the heat well.
• Also, it mustn’t contaminate the food - that is, it must resist corrosion by anything that
might be cooked in it - including hot, salty water, dilute acids (acetic acid e vinegar, for
example) and mild alkalis (baking soda).
• Resist chemical reaction with alkali or acidic medium

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