TLP Library
Teaching and learning packages (TLPs) are self-contained, interactive resources, each focusing on one area of Materials Science.
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- Currently showing
- 24 TLPs having the following tags:
This teaching and learning package discusses the two main environmental threats leading to crystallization in plants and animals, and the ways in which organisms have adapted to avoid this crystallization. As part of this discussion, there is coverage of some of the theory of nucleation and crystallization.
This TLP investigates the basic principles, design and applications of batteries. It covers both primary and rechargeable batteries, how they work and how they may be used.
This teaching and learning package provides an introduction to the mechanics of beam bending and torsion, looking particularly at the bending of cantilever and free-standing beams and the torsion of cylindrical bars.
This teaching and learning package (TLP) introduces the concept of texture in crystalline materials such as common metals and metallic alloys.
Crystalline materials are characterised by a regular atomic structure that repeats itself in all three dimensions. In other words the structure displays translational symmetry.
Highly porous materials, such as honeycombs, foams and fibrous structures, are an important class of material in both synthetic and biological systems. They are used in many different ways, but their mechanical behaviour is often of great importance as they are pressed, bent, sat on or chewed. An important class of these materials can be considered as made up of cells, so-called cellular structures. Here we describe how these materials deform, elastically and irreversibly.
Tags:
elastic deformation
An introduction to the mechanisms and driving forces of diffusion, and some of the processes in which it is observed.
Tags:
diffusion
fundamentals
This teaching and learning package (TLP) discusses the elasticity of biological materials. Whilst some show Hookean elasticity, the vast majority do not. Non-linear elasticity is considered, in particular J-shaped and S-shaped curves. Viscoelasticity is also discussed, using hair and spiders' silk as examples.
Electromigration is an ever-increasing problem as integrated circuits are pushed towards further miniaturization. The theory of the phenomenon is explained, including electromigration-induced failure and how it has been and can be minimized.
This TLP enables you to explore the way in which perfect thin crystalline layers are deposited epitaxially (i.e. in the same crystal orientation) on semiconductor substrates. This is the way many electronic and opto-electronic devices are now fabricated using techniques such as molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).
This teaching and learning package provides a short summary of four of the most promising fuel cell technologies. It gives a general overview of the field with focus on materials used (electrolytes and electrodes) and the mechanism of function (electrochemistry and thermodynamics).
An introduction to the indexing of diffraction patterns.
Tags:
diffraction
microscopy
This TLP introduces readers to key challenges in the selection, usage and development of materials for nuclear reactors.
Tags:
energy
This teaching and learning package (TLP) gives an introduction to the nature of fibre-reinforced composite materials and their basic mechanical characteristics.
This tutorial is based on lab work within the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge. The tutorial provides an introduction to the topic of photoelasticity and preparation for lab work. Photographs illustrate many features of birefringence in polymers under polarised light.
This teaching and learning package is an introduction to the basic concepts of polymer science. It includes molecular structure, synthesis and tests for identification.
This TLP shows the construction of reciprocal lattices from real ones, use of the Ewald sphere for diffraction experiments and some other applications of reciprocal space.
This TLP covers the use of the Stereographic projection and Wulff nets.
This teaching and learning package (TLP) introduces the phenomena of superelasticity and the shape memory effect.
This TLP offers an introduction to the mathematics of tensors rather than the intricacies of their applications. Its aims are to familiarise the learner with tensor notation, how they can be constructed and how they can be manipulated to give numerical answers to problems.
Tags:
fundamentals
tensors
This teaching and learning package (TLP) is based on lab work in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge. The TLP provides an introduction to the topic of thermal expansion, and its application, together with the different stiffness of materials, in the bi-material strip. The TLP leads you through experiments to measure Young's Modulus from the deflection of a cantilever beam, and to estimate the boiling temperature of nitrogen and the expansivity of a polycarbonate material from the curvature of a bi-material strip immersed in liquid nitrogen.
This teaching & learning package provides an introduction to X-ray diffraction. It describes the main crystallographic information that can be obtained and experimental methods most commonly used.

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