Introduction to Materials Chemistry

Citation

Allcock, H. R. (2019). Introduction to Materials Chemistry (2nd ed.). Wiley.

Chapter Summary

The second edition has about 500 pages in 22 chapters, arranged in three parts: Part I, Background to Materials Chemistry (Chapters 1–5); Part II, Different Types of Materials (6–13); and Part III, Materials in Advanced Technology (14–22). The opening chapter describes the book as an introductory, qualitative overview of the role of chemistry in materials science, with an emphasis on how materials are designed, synthesized, evaluated and used. Chapters are divided into lettered sections, and almost every chapter ends with further reading and with study questions intended for class discussion or essays. A terminology appendix closes the book. The publisher notes new coverage in this edition of graphene, nanotubes, light-emitting diodes, extreme photolithography, biomedical materials and metal–organic frameworks.

Chapter 1: What Is Materials Chemistry?

The chapter surveys the types of materials, the role of chemistry, structure–property correlations, uses, approaches to producing new materials and the interface with technology. It frames the book around a cycle of synthesis, structure, properties and uses, and contrasts improving existing materials by processing with designing new ones at the molecular level.

Chapter 2: Fundamental Principles that Underlie Materials Chemistry

The chapter asks why different materials are different, working through the role of different elements, the main types of bond (van der Waals forces, covalent and coordinate bonds, hydrogen bonding, ionic assemblies, metallic bonding, energy bands and band gaps), the size and shape of molecular units, ultrastructures and the origins of colour.

Chapter 3: Background to Basic Synthesis and Reaction Chemistry

The chapter covers how elements are isolated (high-temperature reduction, electrolysis, microbial extraction, vapour deposition), techniques for materials synthesis, reaction kinetics, separations, and the reaction types most used in materials chemistry, from halides and oxides to organometallic chemistry, cross-linking and polymerization–depolymerization equilibria.

Chapter 4: Chemistry of Representative Elements Utilized in Materials Science

The chapter reviews carbon, silicon, boron, phosphorus, nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur, then main-group metals, transition metals, and the lanthanides and actinides.

Chapter 5: Structure Determination and Special Techniques for Materials Characterization

The chapter is a catalogue of methods for bulk materials (microanalysis, infrared–Raman and solid-state NMR spectroscopy, thermal analysis, stress–strain testing, X-ray diffraction, refractive index, magnetic susceptibility, conductivity, electron microscopy), for surfaces and thin films (SEM, STM and AFM, XPS, ellipsometry, contact angles) and for solutions (NMR, light scattering, gel permeation chromatography).

Chapters 6–7: Small Molecules in Solids; Porous Solids

Chapter 6 treats how small molecules pack and self-assemble, including liquid crystals from disk-shaped molecules and charge-transfer complexes. Chapter 7 covers clathrates, metal–organic frameworks, zeolites, inverse opals and molecular imprinting.

Chapter 8: Ceramics and Inorganic Glasses

Oxide ceramics and silicate minerals, clays and asbestos, glasses (including Pyrex-type and "Gorilla" glass), optical fibres and the sol–gel process, perovskites, non-oxide ceramics such as silicon carbide and silicon nitride, and fabrication.

Chapters 9–10: Polymers: Fundamental Aspects; Polymer Morphology and Fabrication

Chapter 9 covers addition, condensation, ring-opening and electrochemical polymerization, structure–property relationships, classical polymers from polyethylene to Kevlar and epoxies, and polymers containing inorganic elements such as silicones and polyphosphazenes. Chapter 10 treats the solid state (entanglement, microcrystallinity, liquid crystallinity), composites and blends, soft matter (elastomers and gels) and fabrication methods up to three-dimensional printing.

Chapter 11: Carbon-Based Materials

Diamond, carbon fibre, glassy and amorphous carbon, fullerenes, graphite, graphene, carbon nanotubes and sp³ nanothreads, with a comparison to other layered and fibrous solids.

Chapters 12–13: Metals and Alloys; Superconductors

Chapter 12 covers the isolation of individual metals from their ores, the solid-state structure of metals and alloys (packing, dislocations, grain boundaries), corrosion, and electrical, thermal, magnetic, optical and mechanical properties. Chapter 13 introduces high-temperature superconductors: nomenclature, synthesis, structure, theories and uses.

Chapters 14–16: Semiconductor Basics; Photolithography and Microlithography; Semiconductor Devices

Semiconductor principles (band gap, carrier mobilities, dopants), preparation of semiconductor-grade silicon and compound semiconductors, and polymeric semiconductors; the lithographic process and the chemistry of photoresists; then devices: transistors, integrated circuits and memory, photovoltaic cells (including polymer, perovskite and dye-based cells), LEDs, lasers, OLEDs, imaging sensors and quantum dots.

Chapter 17: Optical and Photonic Devices

Refractive index, dispersion and birefringence, passive devices (lenses, waveguides, filters, polarizers) and responsive materials: liquid-crystal devices, photochromic, nonlinear optical and electrochromic materials.

Chapters 18–19: Materials and Devices for Energy Generation and Storage; Membranes

Fuel cells of several types, lithium-ion and solid-state batteries, capacitors and supercapacitors; then porous and nonporous membranes for desalination, gas separation, dialysis and drug delivery, gel membranes and piezoelectric transducer membranes.

Chapters 20–22: Surface Science of Materials; Biomedical Materials; Miniaturization in Materials Science

Surfaces of metals, ceramics, polymers and semiconductors, molecular assembly on surfaces and adhesion; biomedical metals, ceramics and biostable and bioerodible polymers, with cardiovascular, orthopaedic, drug-delivery and tissue-engineering applications; and nanostructures, their top-down and bottom-up fabrication, nanoparticles, and molecular machines.

Key Concepts

Part I: Background (Chapters 1–5)

• Structure–property correlation: relating the molecular or solid-state structure of a material to its properties, the book's central organising idea.
• Band gap: the energy separation between filled and empty electronic bands, which determines whether a solid is a conductor, semiconductor or insulator.
• Sol–gel and vapour-phase synthesis: low-temperature solution routes and gas-phase deposition routes to solids and films.
• Characterization techniques: the diffraction, spectroscopic, thermal, mechanical and microscopy methods used to determine structure and properties.

Part II: Types of materials (Chapters 6–13)

• Metal–organic frameworks and zeolites: crystalline porous solids whose cavities can hold or separate molecules.
• Polymer architecture: linear, branched, block, star and network structures, and how they control properties.
• Graphene and carbon nanotubes: single-layer and rolled forms of graphitic carbon.
• Dislocations and grain boundaries: defects in metals that govern their mechanical behaviour.

Part III: Advanced technology (Chapters 14–22)

• Doping and the p–n junction: controlling semiconductor conductivity with impurities and the junction on which diodes, transistors and solar cells depend.
• Photoresist: a polymer whose solubility changes on exposure to light, used to pattern microcircuits.
• Bioerodible polymer: a polymer that breaks down in the body, used for drug release and tissue scaffolds.
• Top-down and bottom-up fabrication: making nanostructures by cutting down larger objects or by assembling molecules.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A chemist's route into materials. The book starts from bonding, synthesis and the chemistry of individual elements before any class of material, and its first chapter explicitly organises the subject around synthesis, structure, properties and uses. CHOICE's review of the first edition (April 2009), quoted by the publisher, described this path from basic chemical principles through the major materials groups to special examples.
• Exceptional breadth for its length. Ceramics, glasses, polymers, carbon, metals, superconductors, semiconductors, photonics, energy materials, membranes, surfaces, biomaterials and nanostructures all have chapters, so the book shows how chemistry connects to technologies that other texts treat separately.
• Current topics. The second edition includes metal–organic frameworks, graphene, sp³ nanothreads, perovskite solar cells, solid-state batteries and three-dimensional printing.
• Discussion-oriented study questions. Every chapter's study questions are framed for class discussion or essays, and further reading lists accompany each chapter, which suits seminar-style teaching.

Limitations

• Qualitative by design. The book describes itself as a qualitative overview, and the study questions are discussion and essay prompts rather than numerical problems. Students who need quantitative practice in crystallography, thermodynamics of solids or band theory will need another text.
• Brief treatment of each class. With 22 chapters in about 500 pages, some topics receive only a few pages: superconductors and photolithography each occupy about ten. The book is a map of the field rather than a textbook for any single class of material.
• No systematic crystallography. Crystal structures appear through packing in metals, diffraction methods and individual materials, but there is no chapter on lattices, unit cells or space groups.

Where It Fits in the Course

Allcock is the broadest book in this course list and the natural starting point. Charles Carraher's Introduction to Polymer Chemistry develops in full the polymer chemistry that Allcock covers in Chapters 9–10, and Robert Young and Peter Lovell's Introduction to Polymers adds the characterisation, morphology and mechanical behaviour of polymers as materials; together they are the follow-on for students specialising in polymers. Anthony West's Solid State Chemistry and its Applications is an undergraduate text on the structure, synthesis and properties of inorganic solids that supplies the crystallography, defect chemistry and physical properties that Allcock treats only qualitatively, and is the next step for ceramics, metals and electronic materials.

Peter Müller's Crystal Structure Refinement is a practical guide to determining and refining crystal structures from diffraction data; it is relevant only to students who will do diffraction work, and belongs well after the X-ray diffraction section of Allcock's Chapter 5.

How to Use This Book

The book suits undergraduate chemistry students taking a first course in materials chemistry, engineering and materials science students who want the chemical background, and scientists in industry who need an overview (a first-edition review quoted by the publisher calls it a valuable resource for scientists and industrialists as well as novices). General chemistry is the essential preparation; some organic chemistry helps with the polymer chapters, and some inorganic chemistry with Chapters 3–4 and 8.

A practical plan:

• Core for any course: Chapters 1–2 (framework and bonding) and Chapter 5 (characterization, to be consulted as techniques appear later).
• Materials classes: choose from Part II according to the course: Chapters 8, 9–10, 11 and 12 cover the main classes; Chapters 6–7 and 13 are more specialised.
• Technology: Chapters 14 and 16 form a unit on semiconductors and devices; Chapters 18–22 can be assigned individually as topics for presentations or essays.
• Reference: Chapters 3–4 are best read selectively, when a later chapter relies on a particular synthesis method or element.

Use the study questions as discussion prompts or short essay topics, and follow the further reading lists for depth on any chapter. Because the book contains few calculations, pair it with West for solid-state structure or with Carraher or Young and Lovell for polymers when a course requires problem-solving.