Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries.
Soft matter or soft condensed matter is a subfield of condensed matter comprising a variety of physical systems that are deformed or structurally altered by thermal or mechanical stress of the magnitude of thermal fluctuations. These materials share an important common feature in that predominant physical behaviors occur at an energy scale comparable with room temperature thermal energy, and that entropy is considered the dominant factor. At these temperatures, quantum aspects are generally unimportant. Soft materials include liquids, colloids, polymers, foams, gels, granular materials, liquid crystals, flesh, and a number of biomaterials. When soft materials interact favorably with surfaces, they become squashed without an external compressive force. Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, who has been called the "founding father of soft matter," received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1991 for discovering that methods developed for studying order phenomena in simple systems can be generalized to the more complex cases found in soft matter, in particular, to the behaviors of liquid crystals and polymers.
A hydrogel is a biphasic material, a mixture of porous, permeable solids and at least 10% by weight or volume of interstitial fluid composed completely or mainly by water. In hydrogels the porous permeable solid is a water insoluble three dimensional network of natural or synthetic polymers and a fluid, having absorbed a large amount of water or biological fluids. These properties underpin several applications, especially in the biomedical area. Many hydrogels are synthetic, but some are derived from nature. The term 'hydrogel' was coined in 1894.
In materials science, the sol–gel process is a method for producing solid materials from small molecules. The method is used for the fabrication of metal oxides, especially the oxides of silicon (Si) and titanium (Ti). The process involves conversion of monomers into a colloidal solution (sol) that acts as the precursor for an integrated network of either discrete particles or network polymers. Typical precursors are metal alkoxides. Sol–gel process is used to produce ceramic nanoparticles.
National Institute of Technology Hamirpur is a public technical university located in Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, India. It was declared to be an Institute of National Importance by the Government of India under the Institutes of Technology Act.
Nanocomposite is a multiphase solid material where one of the phases has one, two or three dimensions of less than 100 nanometers (nm) or structures having nano-scale repeat distances between the different phases that make up the material.
Nanofabrics are textiles engineered with small particles that give ordinary materials advantageous properties such as superhydrophobicity, odor and moisture elimination, increased elasticity and strength, and bacterial resistance. Depending on the desired property, a nanofabric is either constructed from nanoscopic fibers called nanofibers, or is formed by applying a solution containing nanoparticles to a regular fabric. Nanofabrics research is an interdisciplinary effort involving bioengineering, molecular chemistry, physics, electrical engineering, computer science, and systems engineering. Applications of nanofabrics have the potential to revolutionize textile manufacturing and areas of medicine such as drug delivery and tissue engineering.
Surface engineering is the sub-discipline of materials science which deals with the surface of solid matter. It has applications to chemistry, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering.
The applications of nanotechnology, commonly incorporate industrial, medicinal, and energy uses. These include more durable construction materials, therapeutic drug delivery, and higher density hydrogen fuel cells that are environmentally friendly. Being that nanoparticles and nanodevices are highly versatile through modification of their physiochemical properties, they have found uses in nanoscale electronics, cancer treatments, vaccines, hydrogen fuel cells, and nanographene batteries.
Green textiles are fabrics or fibres produced to replace environmentally harmful textiles and minimise the ecological impact. Green textiles are part of the sustainable fashion and eco-friendly trends, providing alternatives to the otherwise pollution-heavy products of conventional textile industry, which is deemed the most ecologically damaging industry.
Martina Heide Stenzel is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). She is also a Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) University Ambassador. She became editor for the Australian Journal of Chemistry in 2008 and has served as Scientific Editor and as of 2021, as Editorial Board Chair of RSC Materials Horizons.
Yury Georgievich Gogotsi is a Ukrainian scientist in the field of material chemistry, professor at Drexel University, Philadelphia, United States since 2000 in the fields of Materials Science and Engineering and Nanotechnology. Distinguished University and Trustee Chair professor of materials science at Drexel University — director of the A.J. Drexel Nanotechnology Institute.
Xian Jun Loh is a Singaporean polymer chemist who works in the inter-disciplinary field of biomaterials. He is the Executive Director of the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research and a professor at the Nanyang Technological University. He is currently the President of the Singapore National Institute of Chemistry.
Irshad Hussain is a Pakistani scientist in the field of chemistry and among the few pioneers to initiate nanomaterials research in Pakistan.
Alan Kin-tak Lau is an engineer and academic based in Hong Kong SAR. He is the President and Chair Professor of Product Innovation at Technological and Higher Education Institute (Thei) of Hong Kong. Prior to this appointment, he was Pro Vice-Chancellor at Swinburne University of Technology. He is also the Independent Non-Executive Director of King’s Flair International (Holdings) Limited, the International Vice President and Trustee Board member of The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (2014-2019) and an Academic Advisor at Asia University. He was also appointed the Chair of professional accreditation panel for APEC/IPEA for Korea. From 2014 to 2016, he was the Alex Wong/Gigi Wong Endowed Professor in Product Engineering Design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HPKU). Currently, he is a Fellow of European Academy of Sciences and Arts, the European Academy of Sciences. Lau has conducted research in the field of Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering and Materials Engineering. His work has been focused on aerospace composites, Unmanned aerial vehicle, product design and engineering and bio-composites. Lau is recognized as Australian National Research Leader in Composite Materials 2019, published by The Australian Post. Within the period 2020-2022, he was Director of Oceania Cybersecurity Centre Limited and Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory Company.
Dr. E.K.T Sivakumar is an Indian chemist born in a small hamlet of Tamil Nadu called Podaturpet near Tiruttani. He is a visiting professor at Anna University, Department of Ceramic Technology- Alagappa College of Technology, Anna University, Chennai- 600025. He is also the editor of a Tamil journal Valarum Ariviyal.
The Adolphe Merkle Institute (AMI) is a research center in Fribourg, Switzerland focused on nanoscience. The institute is named after the Swiss entrepreneur Adolphe Merkle who created the foundation that partially funded the institute.
Kumar Biradha is a researcher in the field of crystal engineering. He was born on 15 June 1968 in Relangi, Andhra Pradesh. He is a professor at the Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and a member of Editorial Advisory board of Crystal Growth & Design, an American Chemical Society Journal.
Shakeel Ahmed is an assistant professor of chemistry in the Department of Higher Education, Government of Jammu and Kashmir. He is listed among the top 2% most cited scientists of the world by Stanford University. He is the elected fellow of International Society for Development and Sustainability and is recipient of Young Scientist Award and Best Professor of the Year Award 2020.
Vitaliy Khutoryanskiy FRSC is a British and Kazakhstani scientist, a Professor of Formulation Science and a Royal Society Industry Fellow at the University of Reading. His research focuses on polymers, biomaterials, nanomaterials, drug delivery, and pharmaceutical sciences. Khutoryanskiy has published over 200 original research articles, book chapters, and reviews. His publications have attracted > 11000 citations and his current h-index is 50. He received several prestigious awards in recognition for his research in polymers, colloids and drug delivery as well as for contributions to research peer-review and mentoring of early career researchers. He holds several honorary professorship titles from different universities.
