Page 10 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

Preface

Most colleges and universities now have courses and degree programs related to
materials science. Materials Chemistry addresses inorganic, organic, and nano-
based materials from a structure vs. property treatment, providing a suitable breadth
and depth coverage of the rapidly evolving materials field in a concise format. The
material contained herein is most appropriate for junior/senior undergraduate
students, as well as first-year graduate students in chemistry, physics, and engineer-
ing fields. In addition, this textbook has also been shown to be extremely useful
for researchers in industry as an initial source to learn about materials/techniques.
A comprehensive list of references is provided for each chapter, which is essential
for more detailed topical research.
It is a daunting task for a textbook to remain contemporary, especially when
attempting to cover evolving fields such as advanced polymeric materials and
nanotechnology, as well as applications related to energy storage, biomedicine,
and microelectronics, among others. Accordingly, I began working on updates for
Materials Chemistry while the first edition was still in production! The 2nd edition
continues to offer innovative coverage and practical perspective throughout. After
providing a historical perspective for the field of materials in the first chapter, the
following additions/changes have been adopted in this greatly expanded edition:

The solid-state chemistry chapter uses color illustrations of crystalline unit cells
and digital photos of models to clarify their structures. This edition features more
archetypical unit cells and includes fundamental principles of X-ray crystallog-
raphy and band theory. In addition, the ample amorphous-solids section has been
expanded to include more details regarding zeolite syntheses, as well as cera-
mics classifications and their biomaterial applications. Sections on sol–gel
techniques and cementitious materials also remain, which are largely left out
of most solid-state textbooks.
The metals chapter has been re-organized for clarity, and continues to treat the
full spectrum of powder metallurgical methods, complex phase behaviors of the

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