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Materials Science and Engineering: General Materials Science

Subject guide for materials science and engineering

Locating Books

To locate books on your topic, use the UCSB Library Search. As a starting point, use a keyword search on the likely terms. You are unlikely to find references to a single material, but may be able to find useful books on classes of materials. If the more specific subject fails, browse the subject heading "Materials" itself. Call number ranges for materials science and engineering include:

  • QC 176 - Solid state physics / Condensed matter physics
  • QD 380-388 - Polymer chemistry
  • QD 965 - Crystallography
  • TA 401-409 - General materials science
  • TA 410-418 - "Special" materials, including composites, nanomaterials. etc.
  • TA 459-489 - Metals and alloys
  • TK 7871 - Electronic materials
  • TN 600-799 - Metallurgy
    • TN 690 - Alloy phase diagrams
  • TP 1087-1190 - Plastics and polymer engineering

General Reference Works

Access Engineering - selected titles UCSB Only (http://uclibs.org/PID/146414)
McGraw Hill's Access Engineering is a collection of handbooks spanning all areas of engineering, including various types of materials science and technology. The Calfornia Dibital Library has purchased selected titles and made them available as PDF files.

Analysis and Characterization of Materials -- besides references below, see also: Analytical Chemistry Reference Guide

ASM Engineeered Materials Reference Book, 2nd ed. (SEL Ref Area TA 403.4 .A84 1994)
This handbook of physical properties is grouped by class of material, with tables of physical, thermal, and electrical property data as appropriate.

ASTM CompassUCSB Only (http:/compass.astm.org/)
The ASTM standards collection includes a host of detailed standard methods for the testing of materials.  The online collection may be searched by keyword, or browsed by standard number, and includes both the most up-to-date standards as well as previous versions.

Comprehensive Biomaterials UCSB Only
This 2011 six-volume work contains review articles on biological materials, biologically inspired materials, analytical methods, biocompatibility, surfance engineering, drug delivery, tissue and organ engineering, and other clinical applications.

Comprehensive Supramolecular Chemistry (SEL Ref Area QD 411 .C66 1996)
This eleven volume set contains detailed, comprehensive review articles on a wide range of supramolecular chemistry. Of particular interst to materials scientists are Volume 6: Crystal Engineering; Volume 7: Two- and Three-dimensional Inorganic Networks; Volume 9: Templating, Self-assembly and Self-organization; and Volume 10: Supramolecular Technology. The series has a good subject index in Volume 11.

Concixe Encyclopedia of Materials Charaterization, 2nd ed. (SEL Ref Area TA 407 .C659 2005)
This is an slphabetical collection of short articles on a wide variety of methods for the testing and characterization of materials. Unlike the ASTM standards, it does not give detailed methods. The articles are authoritative and have good, brief bibliographies.

CRC-Elsevier Materials Selector (SEL Ref Area TA 403 .C733 1991)
This three volume work is intended for designers and engineers who are trying to select the most appropriate materials and manufacutring methods for a particular application. It includes data on mechanical, physical, corrosion and wear properties of materials, as well as manufacturing methods.

CRC Materials Science and Engineering Handbook (SEL Ref Area TA 403.4 .C74 1992)
This handbook collects a wide range of data in tabular form on materials including selected ferrous and non-ferrous alloys, ceramics and polymers. Tables are grouped by the property in question.

DECHEMA Corrosion Handbook (SEL Ref Area) TA 418.74 D43 1987)
This multi-volume set (new volumes appear periodically) provides extensive information on the resistance of most materials to a wide range of corrosive substances under varying temperatures and conditions. Artcles appear under the name of the corrosive or class of corrosives. Note that articles are not arranged alphabetically, and you will need to consult the tables of contents or the cumulative index volume to find the articles you are interested in.

Dekker Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (SEL Ref Area QC 176.8 .N35 D43 2004)
This five volume set covers many areas of nanotechnology, including such nanomaterials as metal clusters, quantum wires and dots, dendritic polymers and more. Articles are substantial with extensive refernces. This encyclopedia is avaiable to UCSB users online as part of NANOnetBASE (see below).

Encyclopedia of Advanced Materials (SEL Ref Area TA 404.3 .E53 1994)
This four volume work contains short articles on a whide variety of "advanced" materials, including ceramics, composites, polymers, specialty alloys and electronic amterials.

Encyclopedia of Materials Science and Technology (SEL Ref Area TA 402 .E53 2001)
This eleven volume work coers the entire range of materials science and engineering, including metals, ceramics, polymers, composites, electronic materials and biomaterials. Each article has a brief bibliography, and the set has a good subject index in Volume 11.

Encyclopedia of Smart Materials (SEL Ref Area TA 418.9 .S62 2002)
This two volume encyclopedia covers the field of "smart materials", a widely interdisciplinary examination of materials and structures which respond or adapt to surrounding condtions, such as piezoelectric ceramics, shape memory alloys, magnetorheological fluids and so on. The reviews here may be of interest to materials scientists and engineers working with almost any class of material. The articles have excellent biblipgraphies.

Handbook of Materials for Product Design (SEL Ref Area TA 403.4 .H365 2001)
This handbook is designed to assist in the selection of materials for specific applications. Chapters are grouped by type of materials (e.g. iron and steels, aluminum, titanitum, plastics, composites, rubbers, ceramics) with additional chapters on coating, joining methosd, testing and recycling.

Handbook of Nanophase and Nanostructural Materials (SEL Ref Area TA 418.3 .N35 H358 2003)
This four volume handbook is divided into Synthesis; Characterization, and two volumes on Systems and Applications. The review articles are lengthy and well-referenced.

Handbook of Nanostructured Materials and Nonotechnology (SEL Ref Area TA 403.9 .N35 H36 2000)
Each volume in this five volume set covers a different broad topic area: Synthesis and Processing; Spectroscopy and Theory; Electrical Properties; Optical Properties; and Organics, Polymers and Biological Materials. The articles are expertly written and well-referenced.

Handbook of Surfaces and Interfaces of Materials (SEL Ref Area TA 405 .H345 2001)
The five volumes in this set cover, respetively: surface and interface phenomena; analysis and properties; nanostructured materials, micelles and colloids; thin solid films and layers; and biomaterials. Each volume ahs an index, but there is no cumulative index for the set.

Handbook of Thin Film Materials (SEL Ref Area TA 408.9 .T45 H35 2002)
The five volumes of this set aree divided by topic: Depostion and Processing; Characterization and Spectroscopy; Ferroelectric and Dielectric Thin Films; Semiconductor and Superconductor Thin Films; and Nanomaterials and Magnetic Thin Films. The articles are substantial and well-referenced.

Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical TechnologyUCSB Only (http://www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/kirk/)
The Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology is a wide-ranging, authoritative source of information on chemicals and chemical processes, with detailed references for each article. Though its focus is industrial chemistry, it contains many useful articles on materials, including specific classes of polymers, advance ceramics and many more. The online version includes the current Fourth Edition, with some articles updated each year. The print version is available in the SEL Reference Area at TP 9 .E685 1991.

MRS Online Proceedings Library ArchiveUCSB Only (http://uclibs.org/PID/97288)
MRSOnline Proceedings Library Archive contains over 1800 volumes from 1980 to 2015, of sumposium proceedings from the Materials Research Society, the momst important professional group in materials science and engineering. Symposia cover the gamut of topics of interest to materials scientists. Starting in 2016, the new proceedings are being published in juournal format as MRS Advances (http://journals.cambridge.org/ADV).

Practical Handbook of Materials Science (SEL Ref Area TA403.4 .P7 1989)
This handbook features tables of properties of materials, oranizaed by type of material.

SPIE Digital LibraryUCSB Only (http://www.spiedl.org)
The SPIE Digital Library includes almost 5500 volumes of proceedings from conferences of the society dealing braodly with optics and photonics. Many of the conference symposia deal with topics of interest to the materials scientist, such as advanced photolithography, high temperature superconductors and photonic materials.

Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial ChemistryUCSB Only (http://www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/ueic/index.html)
Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry is a state-of-the-art reference work detailing the science and technology in all areas of industrial chemistry, including such topics of importance to the materials scientist as polymers, ceramics and composite materials. The online version is the 6th Edition; the 5th Edition is available in print in the SEL Reference Area at TP 9 .U5 1985.

Locating Articles

Compendex PlusUCSB Only (http://www.engineeringvillage.com/search/quick.url?database=1)
Compendex is the most comprehensive interdisciplinary engineering abstracts database in the world. Covers over 2,600 international engineering journals, technical reports and conference proceedings. Each year more than 200,000 new abstracts are added. Compendex covers 1884 to present, with the UCe-Links feature for linking to full text journal articles.

INSPEC  UCSB Only <(http://uclibs.org/PID/22771) 
INSPEC covers physics, electrical engineering and electronics, computers and control, and information technology, including journals, conference papers and more. Most citations include abstracts. It is extremely useful for electronic materials, superconductors, and condensed matter physics and physics of materials.

SciFinder UCSB Only: SciFinder is an end-user oriented interface to the Chemical Abstracts, REGISTRY and CASREACT databases. Its databases cover the entire literature of chemistry, including journal articles, patents, conference papers and more, from 1900 to the present, by far the most comprehensive database of the chemical literature and is invaluable for the chemistry of materials. It may be searched by author, topic, corporate source, chemical name, molecular formula or chemical structure (including substructures and reaction diagrams). SciFinder is a web interface for the databases, which requires users to register using a current ucsb.edu e-mail address.

Web of Science (Science Citation Index)UCSB Only (http://isiknowledge.com/wos/)
The Science Citation Index database in Web of Science covers key journals in all areas of science and engineering. It covers 1945-present, and for recent years has searchable abstracts. It also has searchable cited references, so you can track an older reference on, for instance, fluidized bed reactors, forward to more recent applications or to other related records. It has the UCe-Links feature for linking to full text journal articles.

Business Source Complete UCSB Only (http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?authtype=ip,uid&profile=ehost&defaultdb=bth)
Business Source Complete is an excellent source for the business side of the materials industries. It offers indexing and abstracts for the 350 most important scholarly business journals back to 1965 or the first published issue. The database includes searchable cited references for 1,205 journals. It also contains full text for 7,418 periodicals and other sources, including: Peer-Reviewed Journals, Trade Journals & General Business Magazines, Monographs, Country Economic Reports, Industry Reports & Yearbooks, Market Research Reports.