MS3014: Analysis of Materials

Academic Units3
SemesterBoth, from AY2026-27 will be offered only in semester 1
Pre-requisite(s)Nil
Co-requisite(s)Nil

Course Instructors

Dr Fong Wen Mei, Eileen
Associate Professor Annalisa Bruno

Course AIMS

Designed for third year undergraduate students with little background in material characterization, this course aims to introduce various materials characterization techniques, involving both fundamental theoretical frameworks and operations in a virtual lab. The fundamental theoretical frameworks provide detailed and comprehensive working principles of various equipment for imaging, spectroscopy and diffraction methods used in the compositional and structural characterization of engineering materials.  The virtual lab in this course offers vivid instruction in the most widely practiced equipment for materials evaluation such as x-ray diffraction (XRD). Due to the limited access of undergraduate students to the above popular equipment, the virtual lab allows students to operate such equipment and explore various functions anytime outside the classroom, arousing interest by hands-on operation and enhancing understanding of the theoretical knowledge.  The goal is to provide you with a foundation in the use of characterization techniques to diagnose and solve material problems that can be identified and potentially resolved in their forthcoming final year project and future research experience.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you (as a student) would be able to:

  1. Describe working principles of electron microscopy and the theory of image formation.
  2. Explain basic principles of UV-Vis, fluorescence and vibration spectroscopy, and to derive material properties from the data acquired.
  3. Describe the working principles of x-ray diffraction, x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and to derive material properties from the data acquired.
  4. Identify suitable applications for each of the techniques covered, and provide justifications for the choice.

Course Content

  1. Imaging Methods
  2. Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis
  3. UV-Vis Spectroscopy
  4. Vibrational Spectroscopy
  5. Fluorescence Spectroscopy

Reading and References

  • A.R West, Solid State Chemistry and its Applications, (2nd ed), John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2022
  • Cullity, B.D., Stock, S.R. Elements of X-ray diffraction (3rd ed), Pearson New International Edition, 2014
  • Goldstein, J. Scanning Electron Microscopy and X-Ray Microanalysis (4th ed), Springer, 2018