What is an Advanced Material?

There are many different definitions of advanced materials and they have become so commonly used that most tend to assume that advanced materials are just materials. For example there is the famous line from one of Dustin Hoffmann’s early movies, “The Graduate” where he is given some career advice in the form of just one word, “Plastics”. For a physical scientist that one word could just as easily have been “Polymers”, for these are some of the most versatile advanced materials in use today and often are confused as plastics by many people. Here at UNC-Chapel Hill we define advanced materials as those that involve knowledge (and creation of materials) at the molecular and/or atomic scale for the purpose of advancing technology and improving the human experience. These might be materials such as tiny carbon nanotubes that are being used in new types of X-ray tubes that are more efficient and safer than those now in use at airports and in doctor’s offices. These are also new coatings and methods of manufacturing of Teflon, which is an example of a polymer material made with chemical processing methods that causes much less pollution and is “environmentally friendly”. Other possibilities include materials used in new diagnostic methods such as those for medical biopsies.

Advanced materials research involves discoveries of fundamental principles of Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics that can be applied to control the molecular-level properties of new materials, and then fashioning materials and/or nanostructures for real-life applications. It involves knowing the conditions under which a material will be used and identifying candidate materials for this purpose. There is always a real need for better materials and/or nanostructures - the issue is how much better and at what cost. An applied scientist, with a particular application in mind, will scour lists of known materials and/or nanostructures looking for one that meets his or her needs. If existing materials are unsuitable, the applied and basic scientist must work together to develop new materials and/or nanostructures . This synergism between what is available and what needs to be developed reflects the important and complementary roles of the basic and applied sciences in Materials Science. Neither one takes precedence over the other. Rather, they work hand-in-hand to fulfill our ever-growing need for new materials.