Materials technology is a relatively comprehensive discipline that begins with the production of goods from raw materials to processing of materials into the shapes and forms needed for specific applications.

Materials - metals, plastics and ceramics - typically have completely different properties, which means that the technologies involved in their production are fundamentally different. Materials technology is a constantly evolving discipline, and new materials with interesting properties lead to new applications. For example, the combination of different materials into composites gives rise to entirely new material properties.

Material Science:

Materials Science is closely related to materials technology. Materials Science is a multidisciplinary field that connects material properties to the material’s chemical composition, micro-structure and crystal structure. Crystal structure is a description of the ordered arrangement of atoms, ions or molecules in a crystalline material. The crystalline lattice, is a periodic array of the atoms. When the solid is not crystalline, it is called amorphous. Examples of crystalline solids are metals, diamond and other precious stones, ice, graphite. Examples of amorphous solids are glass, amorphous carbon (a-C), amorphous Si, most plastics

Polymorphism and Allotropy:

Some materials may exist in more than one crystal structure, this is called polymorphism. If the material is an elemental solid, it is called allotropy. An example of allotropy is carbon, which can exist as diamond, graphite, and amorphous carbon.

Anisotropy:

Different directions in the crystal have a different packing. For instance, atoms along the edge FCC crystals are more separated than along the face diagonal. This causes anisotropy in the properties of crystals; for instance, the deformation depends on the direction in which a stress is applied.