Materials Science and Engineering Review

A series of vocabulary flashcards based on key concepts and terminology in Materials Science and Engineering.

Materials

Basic substances that have mass and occupy space; can be natural or human-made.

Engineering Materials

Materials used in engineering and everyday applications because of their properties.

Advanced Materials

New materials or modifications of existing materials for superior performance.

Functional Materials

Materials performing specific functions within a system.

Shape Memory Alloys

Materials that can return to a predefined shape when heated above a certain temperature.

Physical Properties

Characteristics of a material that can be observed without changing its chemical identity, such as melting point and density.

Chemical Properties

Properties of a material that can only be observed when it undergoes a chemical change, such as reactivity.

Crystal Packing

Arrangement of atoms or molecules within a crystal.

Thermal Conductivity

The ability of a material to conduct heat.

Nanomaterials

Materials with structures on the nanoscale, which exhibit unique physical and chemical properties.

Composite Materials

Materials made from two or more constituent materials that have significantly different physical or chemical properties.

Polymer

A large molecule composed of many repeated subunits called monomers.

Amorphous Materials

Materials that lack a clear structure and have random arrangements of particles.

Ionic Bonding

A type of chemical bonding that involves the electrostatic attraction between oppositely charged ions.

Covalent Bonding

A type of chemical bond involving the sharing of electron pairs between atoms.

Metallic Bonding

Chemical bonding that occurs between metal atoms, characterized by a 'sea' of delocalized electrons.

Thin Film

A layer of material ranging from fractions of a nanometer to several micrometers in thickness.

Liquid Crystals

Substances that exhibit properties between those of liquids and solid crystals.

Bottom-up Approach

A method of producing materials by assembling small units such as atoms or molecules.

Top-down Approach

A method for producing materials by breaking down larger materials into nanoscale particles.