Welcome to the website of the book Meet materials – materials science & technology for people without a materials background.
Klik hier voor de Nederlandse versie.

Materials are the building bricks of everything that we see around us. Where would smart- phones, cars, buildings or solar cells be without the right materials? They are so self-evident that we almost forget how special they are. This book is about the hidden strength of materials.

The basics
In this book, we will meet materials and understand the technology behind them. Why is that peculiar material suitable for that application? And which knobs do we have to turn to get better materials – if the current ones do not satisfy? In addition to understanding the current materials, we can use the basic knowledge of materials technology from this book also to understand and follow new material developments. And these developments are on the move, as topics such as graphene, plastics for flexible electronics, self-healing materials, nanotechnology, 3D printing and materials of biological origin are discussed in this book.

Book of ideas
This book contains a lot of examples of material applications all around us. This is partly to make material behaviour easier to understand – as we take the known world as a basis, with material applications that we see around us – but also to gain new ideas for our own activities, or just to MacGyver.

For whom?
This book is meant for people who are working in, or together with, the technical sector, but who do not have a background in materials science. For example purchasers, sales(wo)men, management, administrative support, people working in maintenance, legal people, new employees, students, clients or suppliers. With the aim to be able to discuss matters in whole numbers with experts that are familiar with it behind the decimal point.
Of course this book is also useful for technical people and materials scientists themselves – even if it’s only to read about the matter again, as a reference book. For example for materials scientists within one discipline area who’d like to know what is possible in another area. In brief: for everyone who would like to meet materials (again).
To be able to understand the information in this book, basic physics and chemistry on secondary school level is sufficient. And common sense is very useful …

Click on modules to explore the contents of the book from various perspectives.

You can order the book here .