Materials are a term that has existed for a long time, but materials science was proposed in the 60s of the 20th century. In 1957, after the successful launch of the Soviet artificial earth satellite, the US government and the scientific and technological circles were shocked and realized the importance of advanced materials for the development of high technology, so more than ten material science research centers were established in some universities, and since then, the term material science has been widely used.
The formation of materials science is the result of the development of science and technology. This is because, first, the development of solid state physics, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry and other disciplines, the in-depth study of the structure and physical properties of matter, has promoted the study and understanding of the nature of materials; at the same time, metallurgy, metallurgy, ceramics and other studies on the materials themselves have also been greatly strengthened, so that the preparation, structure and properties of materials, as well as the interrelationship between them, have become more and more in-depth, which has laid a relatively solid foundation for the formation of materials science. Second, before the advent of the term materials science, metal materials, polymer materials and ceramic materials science have been self-contained, and there are many similarities between them, which can be used for mutual reference to promote the development of this discipline. For example, martensitic phase transformation was originally proposed by metallologists and is widely used as a theoretical basis for steel heat treatment. However, the martensitic phase transformation phenomenon has also been found in zirconia ceramic materials, and it is used as an effective means of ceramic toughening. Thirdly, there are many similarities between the research equipment and production methods of various materials. Although different types of materials have their own special testing equipment and production equipment, more are the same or similar, such as microscopes, electron microscopes, surface testing and physical and mechanical properties testing equipment. In the production of materials, many processing units are also universal. The generalization of research equipment and production equipment not only saves money, but more importantly, it inspires and learns from each other, and accelerates the development of materials. Fourth, the development of science and technology requires different types of materials to replace each other and give full play to the advantages of various materials to achieve the purpose of making the best use of materials. For a long time, the disciplines of metals, polymers and inorganic non-metallic materials have been separated from each other and have their own systems. Due to the lack of understanding of each other, those who are accustomed to using metal materials do not think of using polymer materials, and even if they want to use them, they do not know much about them and dare not ask. On the contrary, those who are accustomed to using polymer materials do not want to use metal materials or ceramic materials. Therefore, the development of science and technology has put forward new requirements for materials, which has promoted the formation of materials science. Fifth, the development of composite materials organically connects various materials into one. Composites are in most cases a combination of different types of materials, and through the study of materials science, we can have a deeper understanding of various types of materials, providing the necessary foundation for the development of composite materials.