Principles of Inorganic Materials Design, 2nd Edition

Product Description

Materials science is one of the broadest of the applied science and engineering fields since
it uses concepts from so many different subject areas. Chemistry is one of the key fields of
study, and in many materials science programs students must take general chemistry as a
prerequisite for all but the most basic of survey courses. However, that is typically the last
true chemistry course that they take. The remainder of their chemistry training is accomplished
in their materials classes. This has served the field well for many years, but over
the past couple of decades new materials development has become more heavily dependent
upon synthetic chemistry. This second edition of Principles of Inorganic Materials
Design serves as a fine text to introduce the materials student to the fundamentals of
designing materials through synthetic chemistry and the chemist to some of the issues
involved in materials design.
When I obtained my BS in Ceramic Engineering in 1981, the primary fields of
materials science – ceramics, metals, polymers, and semiconductors – were generally
taught in separate departments, although therewas frequently some overlap. This was particularly
true at the undergraduate level, although graduate programs frequently had more
subject overlap. During the 1980s, many of these departments merged to form materials
science and engineering departments that began to take a more integrated approach to the
field, although chemical and electrical engineering programs tended to cover polymers
and semiconductors in more depth. This trend continued in the 1990s and included
the writing of texts such as The Production of Inorganic Materials by Evans and De
Jonghe (Prentice Hall College Division, 1991), which focused on traditional production
methods. Synthetic chemical approaches became more important as the decade progressed
and academia began to address this in the classroom, particularly at the graduate
level. The first edition of Principles of Inorganic Materials Design strove to make this
material available to the upper division undergraduate student.