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Advanced materials

Advanced materials

Measuring up to advanced materials

04 Aug 1998

Made to Measure: New Materials for the 21st Century
Philip Ball
1997 Princeton University Press 480pp £18.95/$22.95hb

Physics, chemistry and physical chemistry have undergone tremendous changes over the course of this century. In physics, the focus has shifted from atoms to subatomic particles, namely nuclear physics and particle physics. Meanwhile, the physics of collections of atoms in the liquid and solid states have slowly emerged as separate, independent fields.

After the Second World War, another interdisciplinary field emerged in the form of materials science, which combines metallurgy, physics, chemistry and physical chemistry. The goal of the subject is to synthesize materials such as metals, ceramics and polymers based on thermodynamic phase equilibria, reaction kinetics and our ability to characterize materials from the atomic level upwards. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between a material’s microstructure and its bulk properties. Materials science also includes theoretical studies that deepen our understanding of the properties of materials, helping us to create new materials on a rational basis – rather than through trial and error alone.

Materials science can therefore be said to encompass all of the classical parts of science. Early on, materials scientists and metallurgists tried to maximize a particular property, such as hardness, toughness, magnetization or conductivity. Great demands were made on developing materials with exceptional properties, such as ultimate strength. However, it soon became obvious that when it came to specific applications, advanced materials with various special properties were of little use unless they could be processed simply and straightforwardly. Thousands of materials have therefore been developed over the past 20 years – many with well defined and reproducible properties – but they have not been widely taken up by industry because they cost too much to make and are not particularly durable.

Having all of these materials at our disposal therefore begs the question: do we really need more research? Or is our task complete, now that we have developed the techniques that allow us to produce the materials that cutting-edge technologies require? Philip Ball, an associate editor of the journal Nature, does not think so. In this new book, he describes ten groups of materials that he thinks will be at the forefront of technology in the coming century. Each chapter covers a different material.

  • Photonic materials allow light to be transmitted through solids and will therefore be able transmit information at very high speeds. Offering immense data-storage capabilities, they are certain to be important tools over the next hundred years, which has been hailed as the century of information technology.
  • New types of magnetic materials will allow increased amounts of information to be stored. This is already one of the main areas of research in materials science.
  • Smart materials, which can react to outside stimuli, are already part of many of the important components found in the appliances used in daily life.
  • Biomaterials have inspired materials scientists to study and copy nature’s machinery. Together with biologists, they have developed biomaterials using well defined proteins under specific environmental conditions. Materials scientists are also looking at ways to use DNA to find new ways of storing information.
  • Biomedical materials have many important practical applications, serving, for example, as implants in the human body. They need to be compatible with human tissue, and one day could even function as spare parts for the human body.
  • Materials that can generate clean energy and store energy without polluting the environment could solve one of the biggest challenges of the next century – the provision of plentiful amounts of clean energy for the Earth’s ever-increasing population.
  • Porous materials with pores from a few atoms in size to thousands of atomic diameters act like sieves that can be used to select different compounds. They could be important for synthesizing other materials.
  • Diamond and other hard materials can be used as very thin surface layers to toughen materials, such as industrial tools.
  • Polymers that can be made by chain reaction allow scientists to develop materials with specific molecular architectures.
  • Surface and interface science will be critical in the development of new materials. Techniques need to be developed that allow atoms to be imaged either directly on the surfaces of materials or with advanced electron microscopy.

Ball writes about the enormous progress that has been made over the past 20 years in these ten areas in an interesting and entertaining way. However, after reading the book, one might conclude that materials science has now done all that it can, and that engineers can simply pick whatever material they need from the shelf. This is, of course, not true. The 21st century still holds many challenges for materials science. Information technology and energy technology – two key areas over the next hundred years – will demand materials with ever more specific properties at ever smaller scales.

The nanoscale and the sub-nanoscale will probably be the most important dimensions in the future, although this may well lead to a revitalization of more traditional fields, such as friction, wear and corrosion. After all, advanced wear-free materials will be of great interest in these applications. Materials scientists may also start to become interested in waste disposal and recycling.

The materials that Ball describes are all advanced – some, indeed, are quite exotic. They will provide challenges that are at the cutting-edge of research. But a by-product of this research will be the discovery of processes that are also relevant to more conventional materials. It is clear, after reading this book, that materials science is by no means coming to an end.

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