The Physics and Chemistry of Materials

The Physics and Chemistry of Materials Joel I. Gersten and Frederick W. Smith Wiley, New York, 2001. $110.00 (826 pp.). ISBN 0-471-05794-0

As we learn and teach the properties of materials, we clearly need a textbook that combines an authoritative treatment of the issues with broad scope, appropriate journal coverage, clarity, integrated notation, and continuity. Joel I. Gersten and Frederick W. Smith have worked hard on this problem and have solved it in an exemplary and remarkably efficient fashion; their The Physics and Chemistry of Materials is, in sum, a wonderful book.

In their preface, the authors discuss the need for a textbook that “emphasizes the physical and chemical origins of the properties of solids while … focusing on the technologically important materials that are being developed and used by scientists and engineers.” They declare their intent to be “to bring the science of materials closer to technology than is done in most traditional books on solid-state physics … [stressing] properties and their interpretation and [avoiding] the development of formalism for its own sake.” And they designed their book so that, “the range of topics covered is comprehensive but not exhaustive … much more material is presented than can be covered in a one semester course.” All of these statements of intent are borne out by the text. In its 826 pages, the book does a remarkable job of covering five major topics: structure, physical properties, classes, synthesis, and processing of materials; surfaces; thin films; interfaces; and multilayers. The text is divided into 22 chapters that present clearly and authoritatively the appropriate qualitative descriptions, mathematical developments, conceptual notions, notations, and formulas.

The book contains all the resources that an excellent textbook should have but many modern ones do not. These resources include extensive tables and data, two excellent indices that make the book useful as a reference as well as a text, clear illustrations, and a set of problems that focus on fundamentals rather than simple mathematics or plug-in exercises.

A Web site associated with the book contains further extended discussions of some major points, including the description of additional materials properties and examples of current applications. The Web site also offers experimental techniques and appendices on thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and quantum mechanics.

Although The Physics and Chemistry of Materials is intended as a textbook, it is one of the few books that I will actually make space for on my desk, because of its very broad coverage and remarkably focused discussion of so many topics. The next time I need to be reminded of what the Poole-Frenkel effect is, or what the fundamental microscopic basis for plasticity is, or which polymers are piezoelectric, this book is the place to find the description at the right level, along with some physical examples and leading references.

There are a few things missing even in this exemplary treatment. As the authors themselves point out, the treatment of biomaterials and composites is quite short. Indeed, of the classical aspects of materials science, ceramics clearly gets less emphasis here than do metals and polymers. Some modern topics that one might have expected to find, such as organic light-emitting diodes and conductive polymers, are absent. The book does not point to answers to the problems.

These, though, are minor quibbles. I find this book a delight: its clarity is matched only by its broad scope and remarkable utility. While the cost is high, elementary textbooks for first-year students are roughly in the same cost range. And this book (unlike many classroom texts) will remain very useful long after the course ends.