| dc.description.abstract | Ceramics include tiles, pots, art-ware, dinnerware, pottery, brick, and toilet seats and
these are normally referred to as customary or silicate-based ceramics. Whilst these
conventional products have been and continue to be, important to civilization, a new
class of ceramics has transpired - that most people are unaware of. These advanced or
technical or modern or industrial ceramics are being used for applications such as space
shuttle tile, engine components, artificial bones and teeth, computers and other
electronic components, and cutting tools, just to name a few.
Ceramics can be defined as inorganic, non-metallic materials that are typically
produced using clay and other minerals from the earth or chemically processed powders.
Ceramics are typically crystalline and are compounds formed between metallic and
non-metallic elements such as aluminum and oxygen (alumina – Al2O3), silicon and
nitrogen (silicon nitride – Si3N4), silicon and carbon (silicon carbide – SiC), etc. The
word Ceramic is derived from the Greek word ‘Keramos’ meaning ‘potter’ or ‘pottery’.
Keramos in turn originated from a Sanskrit root – meaning ‘to burn’. Hence, the
word Keramos was to infer ‘burned substance’ or ‘burned earth’. | en_US |
