Classification of Materials

All the primary materials which are commonly used in electrical and electronics engineering can be functionally classified as follows :

(a) Conducting material

(b) Insulating material

(d) Magnetic material.

Conducting material : The material, which allow the current to pass through them, are called conducting materials. These have very low electrical resistance and are available in a large variety having different properties.

Some of them are: Copper, Aluminum, Silver, Brass, Gold, Platinum, Tungsten, Bronze etc.

Insulating materials : The materials which do not allow the current to pass through them without any appreciable loss are classified as insulating materials. These have very high electrical resistance and are also available in a large variety to cover different applications.

Rubber, Mica, Ceramics, Glass etc. are some of the insulating materials used for various applications.

Some of the specific insulating materials are used for the purpose of storing of an electrical energy and are called dielectric materials such as air, mica, ceramic, paper etc. These materials are used as a dielectric in capacitors.

Semiconducting material : These materials possess the electrical resistivity in between the conducting and insulating materials and used for the manufacturing of diodes and transistors Silicon Germanium, Selenium) Gallium arsenide, Gallium phosphide etc. are some of the semiconducting materials used for different applications in electronics engineering.

Magnetic materials : The materials which provide a path to magnetic flux are classified as magnetic materials. Iron, high carbon steel, tungsten steel, permalloy, barium ferrite etc. are some of the magnetic materials. Transformer and Inductors use these magnetic materials.