An ant viewed by a scanning electron microscope.

Materials science is the study of the structural and functional properties of materials. It focuses on the factors inherent within materials that influence their properties. These factors include composition, the structure of the matter within the material and the type and quantity of defects that are present. It is a multidisciplinary subject that draws upon and feeds back to the learning in just about every field of science and engineering in some way or another placing the subject in a central role to many of the activities in these related subjects.

This book is aimed at those studying materials science at the undergraduate level in university whether as their major field or as a single module of a related engineering course.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Structure of Matter
3. Defects and Microstructure
4. Diffusion
5. Mechanical Properties
6. Material Processing
7. Thermodynamics
8. Materials
9. Material Characterization
10. Thermochromics
11. Crystallography
12. Biocompatible Material
13. Analytical Techniques
14. Useful Formulas

Common Symbols

Term	Definition	Units (metric)	Subject
r	radius	m	Structure of Matter
${\displaystyle a_{0}}$	unit cell dimension	m	Structure of Matter
APF	Atomic Packing Factor		Structure of Matter
${\displaystyle \rho }$	density	${\displaystyle g/cm^{3}}$
n	number of atoms/ unit cell		Structure of Matter
A	atomic weight	g/mol	Structure of Matter
${\displaystyle V_{c}}$	Volume of unit cell	${\displaystyle m^{3}}$	Structure of Matter
${\displaystyle N_{A}}$	Avogadro's number	6.022 E23 atoms/mol	Structure of Matter

Glossary