Structure of Materials

From atoms to microstructure. Materials classes and selection, bonding and crystal structures, defects, dislocations and diffusion.

• Introduction to Materials Engineering & Materials Selection — Everything engineered is made of something. Learn the structure–processing–properties–performance paradigm, the classes of materials (metals, ceramics, polymers, composites, semiconductors, biomaterials), key property groups (mechanical, thermal, electrical, magnetic, optical, chemical), the history from Stone Age to nanomaterials, what metallurgical and materials engineers do, and systematic materials selection with Ashby performance indices and property charts — with Python ranking materials for a light, stiff beam.
• Atomic Bonding, Crystal Structures & Crystallography — How atoms arrange themselves. Learn atomic bonding (metallic, ionic, covalent, secondary) and bond energy curves, crystalline vs amorphous solids, unit cells and lattices, the common metallic structures (BCC, FCC, HCP) with coordination numbers and packing factors, theoretical density, allotropy (α-Fe, γ-Fe), Miller indices for directions and planes, linear and planar density, slip systems, single crystals vs polycrystals and anisotropy, and X-ray diffraction with Bragg's law — with Python computing densities, packing factors and XRD peak positions.
• Imperfections, Dislocations & Diffusion — The flaws that make materials useful. Learn point defects (vacancies, interstitials, substitutional atoms) and their Arrhenius concentration, solid solutions and Hume-Rothery rules, line defects (edge and screw dislocations, Burgers vector) and why they make metals ductile, planar defects (grain boundaries, twins, stacking faults), grain size, volume defects, and diffusion mechanisms, Fick's first and second laws, the error-function solution, temperature dependence of diffusivity, and industrial diffusion processes (carburising, nitriding, semiconductor doping) — with Python for vacancy fractions and carburising depth.