Bernard Grobéty University of Fribourg, Switzerland

Course organisation
Teacher:

Bernard Grobéty
Office No. 3.304
Tel. 8936
e-mail: bernard.grobety@unifr.ch

Schedule and location:

Lecture: Tuesday 1315 - 1500 Auditoire 2ème étage

Introduction
References
The course will be presented mainly with help of overheads.
PDF versions of the overheads and additional course material will be available on our internet home
page.

Textbook
The Chemistry of Ceramics
Hiroaki Yanagida, Kunihiko Koumoto, Masaru Miyayama
John Wiley and Suns 1996

Additional References

Barsoum Michael
Fundamentals of Ceramics
McGraw Hill, 1997 ISBN: 0071141847

W.D., Kingery, H.K. Bowen, and D.R., Uhlmann

Introduction to Ceramics
2nd ed., John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1976

Y.M., Chiang, D., Birnie III, and W.D., Kingery

Physical Ceramics
John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1997
Introduction

Ceramic materials
Definition: Ceramics can be defined as inorganic, nonmetallic materials. They are typically
crystalline in nature and are compounds formed between metallic and nonmetallic elements such
as aluminum and oxygen (alumina-Al2O3) or silicon and nitrogen (silicon nitride-Si3N4).

Type of ceramic materials based on composition:

- Silicate ceramics: compounds containing the anionic complex (SiO4) e.g. the silicate group.
- Advanced ceramics:
Oxide ceramics: alumina, zirconia etc.
Non-oxide ceramics: carbides and nitrides are the most important compounds of this group.

Product groups:
Ceramics
Introduction

Properties of Ceramic Materials I

Ceramics Metals
Melting point

LT mechanical resistance

HT mechanical resistance

Thermal expansion

Ductility

Corrosion resistance

Abrasion resistance

Electrical conductivity

Density

Thermal conductivity
high values
Thermal shock resistance
low values
Introduction

Properties of Ceramic Materials II

The most remarkable property of ceramic materials is their very high melting,
sublimation or dissociation temperatures. Typical ceramic materials and melting
points

MgO 2800 °C HfC 3890 °C

Al2O3 2030 °C HfTa4C5 3940 °C
ZrO2 (stab. Y) 2550 °C WC 2600 °C
TiO2 1840 °C SiC 2250 °C (diss.
elements)

SiO2 1710 °C BN 2400 °C (subl.)

Mg2SiO4 1810 °C TiN 2950 °C
Al2SiO5 1810 °C AlN 2500 °C (subl.)
CaSiO3 1540 °C Si3N4 1900 °C (subl.)

C 3750 °C
Si 1421 °C
Introduction

Entymology

The term "ceramic" is derivated from greek "keramos" meaning "clay" or "brick", but also
"the one who went through the fire". The last meaning is connected with greek mythology
and the heroe Keramos. Keramos was the result of a quick affair between Dyonisos, the
god of wine, and Ariadne on the isle of Naxos. Since his youth, Keramos was responsible
for the replacement of the drinking cups, which got broken during his father's binges.

Examples of greek ceramic ware, 1500 B.C.

Introduction

History of Ceramic Materials

7000 BC. First bricks made of dried clay

4000 BC Frist fired bricks (Mesopotamia)
Appearance of potter's wheel and firing
kilns (Egypt)
2600 BC First bricks with sumeric cuneiform
writings
2300 BC Ziggourat build par Our-Nammon
(„The tower of Babylone“)
600 BC Ishtar portal in Babylone
build by king Nabuchodonosor (photo)
800 AC Developement of porcellaine in China
1600 AC Introduction of porcellaine manufacturing in
Europe (Saxony)
1900 AC First application of non-silicate ceramics,
refractories MgO and SiC
1960 AC Introduction of the Bayer process for the
manufacturing of alumina
1986 AC Discovery of supraconductivity in cuprate
ceramics (Müller and Bednorz, IBM Rüschlikon)
Introduction

Application of silicate ceramics

Early Ming Dynasty Bowl 14th century Brick wall, Oxford St. Berkeley
http://www.dadums.50megs.com/chinese/fish.html http://www.ma.huji.ac.il

Electric fuses
http://www.littelfuse.com
Tile pattern, Alhambra, Granada Spain
http://www.ma.huji.ac.il
Introduction

Application of advanced ceramics

BORIDE Inc WC blast nozzle

Kryocera Si3N4 gas turbine rotor

Structural Al2 O3
parts (Reed, 1995)

Kundan MgO refractory bricks

(furnace liners)
Introduction

Markets

Products 1990 1995 2000

Tiles 16.5 25.0 33.0
Dish ware 13.0 18.0 22.0
White ware 7.0 9.5 11.5
Refractories 26.0 21.0 19.0
Bricks 24.0 35.0 43.0 Worldwide turnover for
ceramic products in billion $.
Advanced 20.0 25.0 33.0 The 2000 numbers are
ceramics projected.
Total 106.5 133.5 161.5 (Reh, 1998) -

Annual production numbers (1994)

China 723 billions of bricks de briques

67 billions of roof tiles
Switzerland
1‘100‘000 tons of bricks
240‘000 tons of roof tiles
Introduction

Manufacturing of ceramic materials I

Product
Design
Material

Manufacturing
System

Economy
Manufacturing
Simulation Marketing
Introduction

Classification of ceramics by function

Function Class
electrical insulation -Al2O3 , MgO, procelain
ferroelectrics BaTiO3, SrTiO3
piezoelectrics PbZr0.5Ti0.5O3
conductors MoSi2, SiC
fast ionic conductors -Al2O3 , doped ZrO2
superconductors Ba2YCu3O7-x
magnetic soft ferrites Mn0.4 Zn0.6Fe2O4
hard ferrites BaFe12O19, SrFe12O19
nuclear fuel UO2, UO2 - PuO2
shielding SiC, BC4
optical transparent envelopes -Al2O3, MgAl2O4
light memory doped PbZr0.5Ti0.5O3 , LiNbO3
colors doped ZrSiO4, doped ZrO2 , doped Al2O3
mechanical structural refractory -Al2O3 , MgO, Si3N4 , SiC
wear resistance -Al2O3, ZrO2 , Si3N4 , SiC
cutting -Al2O3, ZrO2 , Si3N4 , SiC, WC, SiAlON
abrasive -Al2O3 , MgO, SiC
construction CaO - Al2O3 - SiO2 , porcelain
thermal insulation -Al2O3, ZrO2 , Al6Si2O13 , SiO2
radiator ZrO2, TiO2, AlN
chemical gas sensor ZnO, ZrO2, SnO2, Fe2O3
catalyst carrier Mg2Al4Si5O18, Al2O3
electrodes TiO2 , SnO2, ZnO, TiB2
filters SiO2, Al2O3
coatings NaO - CaO - Al2O3 - SiO2
biological structural protheses -Al2O3, procelain
cements CaHPO4 - H2O
Introduction

Manufacturing of ceramic materials II

powder processing
forming, shaping
drying
firing
finishing
raw material microstructure
properties

final product
properties

application
Introduction

Manufacturing of ceramic materials III

Ceramic materials cannot be

formed by the manufacturing
processes known from metallic or
organic materials. The energy to
melt and cast ceramic raw
materials would be far too costly.
The process used to form ceramic
materials is a heat treatment of
very fine powders of the raw
material(s) called sintering. The
brittle nature of ceramic
endproducts demands as little as
possible machining after sintering.
The ceramic parts have,
therefore, to be shaped before
sintering.

General ceramic processing flow chart

(Reed, 1995)