Materials & Chemicals

Materials and Chemicals is an interdisciplinary heavy industry sector. Materials industry applies the properties of matter to various areas of science and engineering. It incorporates elements of applied physics and chemistry. Significant attention in the Materials field is currently focused on nanoscience and nanotechnology. Chemicals are a broad chemical category including polymers, bulk petrochemicals and intermediates, other derivatives and basic industrials, and more.

The materials industry and market includes building and construction materials used worldwide for the fabrication of structures, earth supports, embankments, and completion of excavations. Heavy industry materials for construction are diverse and range from readily available non-supply chain materials such as brush and mud to commodity supply materials procured for projects like construction aggregates, composite wood products, plastics (PVC), resins, synthetic textiles and fibers (fiberglass), composite cements, other plastics and polymer composites, concrete, and various metals. Heavy industry metal materials include iron, various grades of steel, specialty alloys, titanium, copper, and even gold, silver, chrome and platinum. Glass, ceramic materials and foam are also subsets of heavy industrial materials required for construction. Finished materials for construction projects can included coated glass, architectural glass, other finished specialty glass projects, cast and molded steel (re-bar and beams), pipe sections, blocks, bricks, tiles, flooring, drywall panels, piles, poles, pillars, and wires.

Radical materials advances can drive the creation of new products and new industries. Industrial applications of materials science include materials design, cost-benefit tradeoffs in industrial production of materials, processing techniques (casting, rolling, welding, ion implantation, crystal growth, thin-film deposition, sintering, glassblowing, etc.), and techniques such as electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, nuclear microscopy (HEFIB), backscattering, neutron diffraction, etc.

The chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. The chemical industries convert raw materials oil-- metals, air, water, natural gas and minerals-- into products. Products include chemicals to make plastic for computers, paint for cars, and medicines. Chemical engineers start with cheap, raw, natural materials, such as petrochemicals, seawater, and minerals.