Turbine engine performance, as measured by specific fuel consumption (defined as fuel consumed relative to the thrust produced by the engine), is a key criterion in engine selection. To achieve the specific fuel consumption required of modern engines, engineers combine advanced designs and materials to achieve higher operating temperatures and, therefore, higher engine efficiency. One of the difficulties of using advanced materials is that they exploit scarce, hard-to-replace elements to allow higher operating temperatures. In this article, we describe steps being taken by General Electric Co. and the turbine engine industry to continue to improve engines in a material space constrained by material availability. As a specific example, we focus on the transition metal rhenium.

Materials scientists today employ essentially the entire periodic table in creating modern technology. In an age of sharply increasing usage, it is reasonable to wonder about the supplies of these elemental building blocks. In this article, we review current and prospective supply and demand for a variety of metals. Although data are often sparse, available information suggests that current practices are likely to lead to scarcity for some metals in the not-too-distant future. We conclude by discussing policies that, if adopted, might defuse some of these concerns.

Over the past 12 years, photovoltaics enjoyed an average growth of ∼45% per year that was affected only marginally by the recent global financial crisis. Industrial roadmaps and analysts’ forecasts share visions of solar power becoming a major contributor to national and global electricity grids, with several terawatts of cumulative deployment by 2050 or earlier. For photovoltaics technology to become a major sustainable player in a competitive power-generation market, it must provide abundant, affordable electricity, with environmental impacts dramatically lower than those from conventional power generation. This article summarizes the prospects in each of three basic aspects of sustainability, namely, system costs, environmental impacts, and resource availability, all of which are examined in the context of prospective life-cycle assessment. Indeed, these three aspects are closely related: Increasing the efficiency of material recovery by recycling spent modules will become increasingly important in resolving cost, resource, and environmental constraints on large-scale sustainable growth.

During this century, humankind must deal with increasing demand for energy and the growing impact of burning fossil fuels. Nuclear power, which presently produces 14% of global electricity, is a low-carbon-emissions alternative. However, the sustainability of nuclear power depends on the amounts of uranium and thorium available, the economics of their recovery from ore deposits, and the safety and security of nuclear materials. Unlike combustion of hydrocarbons, which determines the amount of fuel needed for a given amount of energy, nuclear reactions can create additional fissile isotopes. Hence, the choice of nuclear fuel cycle profoundly affects the size of the nuclear resource, as well as nuclear waste management and the risk of proliferation of nuclear weapons. We argue that uranium resources, identified and yet to be discovered, could sustain increases in nuclear power generation by a factor of two or three through the end of this century, even without advanced closed-fuel-cycle technologies.

This article summarizes the energy savings and environmental impacts of using traditional and bio-based fiber-reinforced polymer composites in place of conventional metal-based structures in a range of applications. In addition to reviewing technical achievements in improving material properties, we quantify the environmental impacts of the materials over the complete product life cycle, from material production through use and end of life, using life-cycle assessment (LCA).

Ensuring the continued availability of materials for manufactured products requires comprehensive systems to recapture resources from end-of-life and wastewater products. To design such systems, it is critical to account for the complexities of extracting desired materials from multicomponent products and waste streams. Toward that end, we have constructed dynamic simulation–optimization models that accurately describe the recovery of materials and energy from products, residues, and wastewater sludges. These models incorporate fundamental principles such as the second law of thermodynamics, as well as detailed, empirically based descriptions of the mechanical separation of materials at the particulate level. They also account for the evolution of the recycling system over time. Including these real-world details and constraints enables realistic comparisons of recycling rates for different products and technological options and accurate assessments of options for improvement. We have applied this methodology to the recycling of complex, multimaterial products, specifically cars and electronic wastes, as well as wastewater and surface-water systems. This analysis clarifies how product design, recycling technology, and process metallurgy affect recycling rates and water quality. By linking these principles to technology-based design-for-recycling systems, we aim to provide a rigorous basis to reveal the opportunities and limits of recycling to ensure the supply of critical elements. These tools will also provide information to help policymakers reach appropriate decisions on how to design and run these systems and allow the general public to make informed choices when selecting products and services.

Physical infrastructure, including buildings, roads, pipelines, bridges, power lines, communications networks, canals, and waterways, make up a substantial fraction of worldwide material usage and flows. Consequently, the overall mass of materials and the associated environmental impacts must be addressed to achieve sustainable development of infrastructure. This article surveys the magnitude of material use for infrastructure, including trends in the use per person, environmental impacts of the production and use of infrastructure materials, variations in the longevity of physical infrastructure, and changes in the recycling of infrastructure materials.

Many technologies in the materials, manufacturing, energy, and water sectors thatcurrently provide important benefits to humanity cannot continue indefinitelyand must be directed toward a more sustainable path. In this article, weintroduce the concept of sustainable development, discuss the critical rolesthat materials science plays in this field, and summarize the contents of thearticles in this special issue of MRSBulletin.

Over the next few decades, the challenge of water scarcity is expected to grow more acute as water demands from the power generation, agriculture, industrial, and municipal sectors all increase. Energy production requires copious amounts of water, with the volume of water used by power generation ranking second only to that used for agriculture. This article reviews options for managing the water requirements associated with power generation. Although the effects of both existing and emerging modes of power generation on water use trends are explored, the primary focus is on thermal systems, which account for the majority of existing capacity.

Energy-critical elements (ECEs) are chemical and isotopic species that are required for emerging sustainable energy sources and that might encounter supply disruptions. An oft-cited example is the rare-earth element neodymium used in high-strength magnets, but elements other than rare earths, for example, helium, are also considered ECEs. The relationships among abundance, markets, and geopolitics that constrain supply are at least as complex as the electronic and nuclear attributes that make ECEs valuable. In an effort to ensure supply for renewable-energy technologies, science decision makers are formulating policies to mitigate supply risk, sometimes without full view of the complexity of important factors, such as unanticipated market responses to policy, society’s needs for these elements in the course of basic research, and a lack of substitutes for utterly unique physical properties. This article places ECEs in historical context, highlights relevant market factors, and reviews policy recommendations made by various studies and governments. Actions taken by the United States and other countries are also described. Although availability and scarcity are related, many ECEs are relatively common yet their supply is at risk. Sustainable development requires informed action and cooperation between governments, industries, and researchers.

Perhaps the greatest challenge of the 21st century is to sustain the developmental needs of the world. The economic growth that occurred in developing countries over the past two decades is unprecedented. Materials science and engineering (MSE) innovations will continue to have a pivotal role as an enabling resource to address sustainable development needs. This article focuses on the opportunities for MSE in five key thematic areas: energy, transportation, housing, materials resources, and health.

Preparing the next generation of materials scientists and engineers requires more than teaching them knowledge of material properties and behaviors. Materials science and engineering must also take into account materials sustainability in the context of society and the environment, as discussed throughout this issue. Including topics such as sustainability in a materials curriculum is not new. Issues of ethics, costs, and so on have long been an integral part of our education. Although detailed treatment of all such topics cannot be included in a general materials education curriculum, the concepts of sustainable development and the role of materials in a sustainable future can be introduced. Indeed, many materials science programs are beginning to include these topics in their curricula. This article discusses three such programs that the authors have helped design and implement in the United States, each taking a different approach to engaging students in these topics. The intention is not to provide an exhaustive overview of education in sustainable development, but rather to describe a range of strategies that are currently being applied and to raise pertinent issues in materials science education.