The Department of Physics

Course Description

This course focuses on imparting fundamental knowledge about various metals and naturally occurring minerals, processes involved in extraction and products characterization. This course is a compulsory course for the Materials Science minor offered by the Department of Physics. Through in-class discussions, and problem solving sessions, Students would have an opportunity to improve their ability to reason through challenging situations in the physical Universe using basic principles to develop appropriate solutions. Assessment and evaluation is done in the form of in-course tests and a Final examination. 

Course Content

Earth Materials: Raw Materials, metals and their ores, importance of these materials, basic building blocks of earth materials, mineral chemistry, metal chemistry, glasses, ion conducting glasses, crystal structures, effect of temperature, pressure and environment on these minerals and metals

Material Extraction Processes: Importance of extraction, principles of extraction, crushing of ores, separation of ores: gravity separation, magnetic separation, froth floatation process, leeching, calcination, roasting, reduction of free metal: smelting, reduction of aluminium, self-reduction process, electrolytic reduction, cyanide method, refining/purification; liquation, distillation, poling, zone refining, Mond’s process, Van Arkel process.

Characterization: Structure of metals and minerals, methods to determine structure, metallography, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, phase diagrams, electrical properties and their variations with phases, physical property determination.

Goals/Aim

This course aims to: 

• Impart fundamental knowledge of materials science as basis for appreciation of the importance of engineering materials to technological development. 
• Lay a foundation for the future development of the career of prospective practitioners in  endeavours where expertise in materials science is requisite.

Learning Oucome

At the end of the course, the students will be able to do the following: 

• Identify and describe an integrated view of planet earth based metals and minerals used in everyday life. 
• Analyze and study these metals and minerals in terms of their structure and properties.
• Analyze and assess the different materials and chose the appropriate process for the extraction of metals and minerals. 
• Assess different properties. 
• Analyze the various properties of the earth materials using various characterization techniques.

Assessment