Materials engineering does not receive the same attention as mechanical engineering and biotechnology, but it has had a profound impact on human life and the environment. It plays an important role in space exploration, the information and communication revolution, green energy development, and more, and is a key foundation for the development of other engineering disciplines.
The term materials science may sound unfamiliar to some. When most people think of engineering, they think of mechanical engineering, biotechnology, architectural engineering, and so on, and they think that materials and engineering don’t go together. However, the study of materials is arguably the most essential field of study for human life. Almost everything we use in our daily lives is a product of materials engineering. From the plastics used in our appliances, to the steel that supports the structure of our buildings, to the engines in our cars, it’s all thanks to the research and development of materials science. Today, we encounter and use objects made from a variety of materials that were unimaginable in previous eras. In this article, I’d like to introduce you to materials engineering, a field that has changed the environment we live in without most people realizing it.
More than 3,000 years ago, when Solomon was completing his palace in Jerusalem, he asked who had contributed the most to its construction. The first person to answer was the bricklayer, who claimed that each brick he made made the palace beautiful. The second was the carpenter, who claimed that he had made the biggest contribution by laying the foundation before the bricks were laid. After listening to their arguments, Solomon is said to have asked. “Then who made the extensions used to make the bricks, and who made the tools used to cut the wood?” After saying this, Solomon politely offered wine to the blacksmith, who remained silent with a tanned face.
This story conveys one important lesson. The palace in Jerusalem would not have been completed without the blacksmith, who did not play a prominent or glamorous role in its completion, but went about his work in silence. Today, more than 3,000 years later, we can see similarities between the blacksmith in the story and materials science and engineering.
The first is that it lays the foundation for the development of other engineering disciplines. Today’s space exploration owes much to the development of materials that remain hard even when exposed to intense heat, and the revolution in telecommunications owes much to the development of semiconductor materials. Many of these advances in engineering have been preceded by the development of the materials used in them. Foldable smartphones, which have recently become a hot topic, and solar cells, which are being proposed as one of the alternatives to nuclear power, are all examples of materials engineering. Electric car batteries, artificial organs, superconductors, and many other advanced technologies are also made possible by materials science. In other words, most of the advances in engineering that we hear about are due to the development of the right materials to make them possible.
The second commonality is that the work of the blacksmith – the quest to forge strong iron – is similar to the quest to create stronger materials in materials science today. We’ve all seen historical dramas on TV where a blacksmith soaks charcoal-fired iron in water and then hammers it into shape. When you get down to it, it’s a surprisingly scientific method that people understood over 3,000 years ago. Iron changes its structure, the arrangement of its atoms, with temperature, and its densest structure is not at room temperature, but at elevated temperatures above about 900 degrees Celsius, meaning that the internal structure of the blacksmith’s red-hot iron is denser and more tightly packed. In addition, the carbon atoms from the charcoal are smaller than the iron atoms, and they squeeze into the gaps in the iron’s internal structure. In the densest structure, even the smallest carbon atoms can fit in and act as a kind of glue. When the charred iron is placed in water and cooled rapidly, the iron atoms in this dense structure freeze on their way back to their normal structure. Because the cooling process is so short, the iron atoms can only move slightly during that time, so they are frozen in a stronger structure than they would have been at room temperature. The iron thus obtained is hard but brittle, and the blacksmith hammers it again at the right temperature to give it the property of not breaking easily, i.e. ductility. Today, of course, we use different methods than blacksmiths, but in the grand scheme of things, we still use the same principles. Studying the process of creating strong materials is still an important part of materials science, just as it was for blacksmiths thousands of years ago.
Today, materials engineers have already developed materials that are hundreds of times stronger than the blacksmith’s iron, yet much lighter. Materials that aren’t just strong, but that can catch light and generate electricity. Materials that don’t melt, even at temperatures as high as thousands of degrees. Materials that can replace human bones, for example, have been developed for countless applications. The sky is the limit when it comes to materials science, and innovative new materials are being researched in a variety of fields. These innovations are inextricably linked to the technological advancements of modern society, and their scope is far-reaching. For example, electric cars, solar panels, and even semiconductors for faster computation in artificial intelligence – all of these technological advances are closely linked to the development of the right materials.
We hope that many people will take an interest in the field of materials science, as the wise king Solomon did more than 3,000 years ago, because it is the foundation of all innovation.
