Ceramic Notes
Ceramic Notes
Ceramic Notes
Ceramics
Greek word “keramikos” – burnt stuff –
normally achieved through high-
temperature heat treatment called firing
1. Traditional Ceramics
1. Earthenware
2. Stoneware
3. Porcelain
Earthenware
• ceramic ware made of
slightly porous opaque clay
fired at low heat
• Fired below 1,200 Celcius
• Basic earthenware is
terracotta clay
• Flower pots, tiles, bricks,
surface, waste water pipes
Terracota clay
Stoneware
• Harder and denser than
earthenware and fired at
higher temperatures
• Between 2150 – 2330 Celcius
• Durable, nonporous, and
robust.
• Has vitreous material added
Porcelain
• Made of kaolin (china clay),
kaolin, feldspar, quartz and
clay
• Nonporous, white, translucent,
hard, shiny finish
• Decorated, making it more
expensive than stoneware
Advanced Ceramics
Made using synthetic
powders, such as
aluminum oxide, silicon
carbide, silicon nitride,
and others.
Microelectromechanical Systems Application: Sensors
Application:
Common in making: brick, pipe, ceramic Common in making sanitary lavatory ware,
blocks, and tiles art objects, ceramic tubes
Properties of
Ceramics
Properties
• Great hardness and strength
• Chemical stability/chemical inertness (corrosion resistant, unreactive
with another chemical)
• High-temperature strength (strength retention at very high
temperatures)
• High melting points (they’re heat resistant)
• Low electrical and thermal conductivity (they’re good insulators)
• good optical properties
Applications and
Processing of Ceramics
Glasses
containing other oxides, notably CaO, Na2O, K2O, and
Al2O3,
Applications:
containers, lenses, and
fiberglass, soda lime
glass (SiO2, Na2O, CaO)
Soda lime glass
Main Types of Glasses
Annealed Glass
Application: ovenware,
tableware, oven windows, and
range tops, electrical insulators
for printed circuit boards
Clay Product
widely used ceramic raw materials, very amenable to
shaping.
Two classifications:
• Structural clay products – bricks, tiles, sewer pipes
• Whitewares – become white after high-temperature
firing.
Ex. Porcelain, Sanitary ware, tableware,
Structural Clay
Application
Porcelain
Sanitary Ware
Furnace in glassblowing
Crucible in metal casting
Abrasives
• used to wear, grind, or cut away other material, which
necessarily is softer
• Hard and has high degree of toughness
Grinding Wheels
Sandpaper
Cements
• when mixed with water, they form a paste that
subsequently sets and hardens.
• Cement, plaster of Paris, and limestones
• Portland Cement - hydraulic cement
• Calcination
- process grinding and intimately mixing clay
and lime bearing minerals in the proper
proportions and then heating the mixture to
about 1400C
Carbon
important in many commercial sectors, including some
cutting-edge technologies.
Two allotropic forms of Carbon
Graphite Diamond
Advanced Ceramics
Recyclability