Since I began graduate school, I have told many people that I am studying Materials Chemistry. Usually, people (including my high school chemistry teacher) don’t have a picture of what “Materials” Chemistry means, so you are not alone if you have been a little skeptical. It doesn’t immediately invoke the image of beakers and explosions most people associate with chemistry.

Most research whether physics, biology, or chemistry is working towards the goals of making the world a better place. Chemists are specifically doing this by studying elements, molecules, and compounds. For some chemists that might mean finding faster or cheaper ways to make prescription drugs. For others, it could be testing what chemical compounds are in the atmosphere. Some chemists work on problems to make other chemists work possible like building laser systems so that other chemists can study the proteins in our body.

A materials chemist is trying to do the same thing–make the world a better place by studying elements. We are worried about how trillions of those elements working together make tiny structures that translate into properties we can actually touch and see. This is mainly done to solve a problem in the world. Does the structure make a material stay warm for a long time so it can keep you warm while out in the winter wind? Does the structure make the vest able to withstand a bullet from 50 feet or 10 feet? These are things which have uses in many people’s everyday lives. Longer lasting batteries for cell phones, wearable electronics, glass panes which block light to save your energy bill, paper that detects air pollution. These are all things materials chemists are working to optimize and create.

An example of a material with an interesting structure is a carbon nanotube (image above). The structure is unique because carbon nanotubes can be very long, but are also very narrow. This structure makes the tube incredibly strong and stiff. These tubes can be up to 42,000 times more narrow than the width of a human hair. This could prove to be useful for strengthening metals from baseball bats and golf clubs to airplanes to framework for new bone growth. Learn more about carbon nanotubes in an upcoming blog post.

Materials chemistry can mean different things for different chemists, but whether they are studying batteries, plastics, or metals, they are using structure to make the world a better and more interesting place!

Disagree with my definition of materials chemistry? Have more questions about materials chemistry? Wondering about the structure of material in your life? Leave me a comment or send an email at materialunseen@gmail.com.

Image by cintersimone on Pixabay