Wood, Metals, Polymers, and Nanotechnology: Properties and Uses
Wood and Their Derivatives
Obtaining Timber
The first step is the felling of trees, followed by debranching and debarking, then chopping it up for transport. Finally, different cutting techniques are used (sawn into boards in barracks, coastal, and mesh).
Artificial Wood
These are not artificial products, but products made from sheets or wood chips. Advantages: low cost, versatility of sizes, greater inactivity before weather and parasite attacks (plywood and chipboard).
Timber
Cellulose is obtained for the manufacture of various products: paper, cellophane, rayon, etc. Paper is the most important because of its huge demand and consumption.
Environmental Impact of Logging
Soil erosion (wind or water), destabilization of groundwater (droughts or floods), reduction of biodiversity (ecosystems, organisms), and increased climate imbalance.
Metallurgy Today
Ferrous Metals
These contain iron as their main component. They are based on pure iron, steel, and foundry. In obtaining foundry and steel, part of a first common process is the steel alloy of iron, which is the most important one used in the industry.
Non-Ferrous Metals
Copper and its alloys: aluminum, lead, tin, zinc. To be used as a criterion to classify them, their “different density” is considered:
- Heavy alloys: Formed by copper.
- Light alloys: For aluminum, which is derived by using its low weight and corrosion resistance.
- Super light: Part of magnesium.
Polymers and Ceramics
Polymeric Materials
A polymeric material has a high molecular weight due to its countless molecular structures. Due to molecular structures and states of aggregation, there is a wide variety of polymers.
- According to their origin: They can be classified into natural and synthetic.
- Based on their qualities and price: They are classified as:
- General use: Consumption, known for its duration and low cost.
- Technical or engineering: Retain their properties at temperatures below 0°C or above 100°C.
- Special: Designed for high-performance concrete and uses very specific properties.
- Based on their physical properties: Thermosets, thermoplastics, and elastomers.
Ceramic Materials
These are a set of compounds formed by strong and stable joints of metallic and non-metallic elements by ionic or covalent bonds. Traditional ceramics can be based on empirical knowledge, or advanced (oxides, carbides, and nitrides from a chemical point of view).
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the study, design, and creation of materials and devices through the control of matter at the nanometer scale. Nanometric systems range from a few tens to a few hundreds of atoms or molecules.
Repercussions of Nanotechnology
- Informatics: Access to a terabyte of memory, required to speculate on artificial intelligence.
- Medicine: Devices could be built so small that they could tour the human body, thus detecting certain diseases, and medications to treat them that also hardly affect the body.
- Industry: Design materials to the letter, select or create self-generating machines, and tuned devices that harness energy more efficiently.