Ceramics

WHAT ARE CERAMICS?

• One of the largest groups of materials with the properties of
nonmetals and all are made by firing or burning, often including
silicates and metal oxides.
• Greek term Keramos, meaning "a potter" or "pottery”.
• A ceramic is an inorganic, non-metallic solid material
comprising metal, non-metal or metalloid atoms primarily held
in ionic and covalent bonds.
• To be most frequently silicates, oxides, nitrides and carbides
• The two most common chemical bonds for ceramic materials are
covalent and ionic. The bonding of atoms together is much
stronger in covalent and ionic bonding than in metallic.
 Ceramics generally have the following properties:
• High hardness, high compressive strength,
• Chemical inertness.
• Typically insulative to the passage of electricity and heat
• More resistant to high temperatures and harsh environments than metals
and polymers
• Hard but very brittle
PROPERTIES OF CERAMICS
NOT TO
• Extreme hardness
MEMORIZE LINE
– High wear resistance BY LINE
– Extreme hardness can reduce wear caused by friction
• Corrosion resistance
• Ceramics generally can withstand very high temperatures, such as
temperatures that range from 1,000 °C to 1,600 °C.
 Low ductility - Very brittle, High elastic modulus
 Low toughness
 Low density – Porosity affects properties
 High strength at elevated temperatures 2
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 Classification of Ceramics
Ceramic materials divide into three categories:
1. Glasses – melting & solidification processing
2. Traditional ceramics – particulate processing
3. New ceramics – particulate processing

4 categories of ceramics
• Silicate Ceramics
• Oxide Ceramics
• Nonoxide Ceramics
• Glass Ceramics

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 Silicate Ceramics (Dental porcelain)
• Amorphous glass phase with a porous structure
• Main components: SiO2
• Small quantities of : Al2O3 , MgO, ZrO2

Oxide Ceramics
• Principally contains:
• Al2O3,MgO,ZrO2 with either no glass phase or small content.

Glass Ceramics
• Are partially crystallized glass
• Produced by nucleation and growth of crystals in glass matrix
phase
 Non oxide Ceramics
• Impractical for dental use
Why?
• High sintering temp
• Unesthetic color
• opacity
 CERAMIC CRYSTAL STRUCTURES
• ceramics that are predominantly ionic in nature
• have crystal structures comprised of charged ions, where
• positively-charged (metal) ions are called
• cations, and
• negatively-charged (non-metal) ions are called anions –
• the crystal structure for a given ceramic depends upon the
relative size of the cation(s) and anion(s),which determines
the type of interstitial site(s) for the cation(s) in an anion
lattice

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 Raw Materials

Clay Minerals
Talc and Related
Minerals
Silica and Silicate
Silica
Minerals Talc
Feldspars and related
minerals.
Refractory Raw
Materials
Clay
 Making Ceramics
• Heat above 1000⁰C
• Water evaporates leaves pockets
• Particles stick together
• Think of bricks
• The earliest ceramics made by humans were pottery objects, made
from clay, either by itself or mixed with other materials like silica,
hardened, sintered, in fire.
• Later ceramics were glazed and fired to create smooth, colored
surfaces, decreasing porosity through the use of glassy, amorphous
ceramic coatings on top of the crystalline ceramic substrates.
• Ceramics now include domestic, industrial and building products, as
well as a wide range of ceramic art.
Glazed
• Thin layer of silicon dioxide
• Heat it again
• Forms glassy waterproof covering
 Uses of Ceramics
• Insulators
• Store food
• Protect from moisture and animals
• Roofing tiles
• Sewer pipes
 What is Glass
• Non-crystalline ceramics, being glass, tend to be formed from
melts. The glass is shaped when either fully molten, by casting, or
when in a state of toffee-like viscosity, by methods such as blowing
into a mould. If later heat treatments cause this glass to become
partly crystalline, the resulting material is known as a glass-
ceramic.
• Glass is an amorphous material that lacks a long range periodic
crystalline structure. Glasses can be formed through several
methods but the most common method involves heating raw
materials into a molten liquid and then rapidly cooling the liquid
in such a way that the atoms remain in a randomly arranged
atomic state.
• Glass is a mixture having no definite boiling or freezing points. It is
also called a super cooled liquid. Chemically, most glasses are
silicates. It is transparent and not affected by chemicals. It can be
moulded into any shape.
 Glass Properties of Glass
• Sand + Limestone = Glass • Brittle and shatters
• Clear • Clear
• Solid • Make into different shapes and
• No crystal structure colors
• Can not be penetrated by liquids

Comparison with glass

Similarities Differences
 brittle Glass Ceramics
 hard
 electrical insulator Transparent Not transparent
 chemically inert Recyclable Not recyclable
 Glass
 Glass is one of three basic types of ceramics. Glass is distinguished
by its amorphous (noncrystalline) structure.
 Structure : Network formers
Molecules that link up with each other to form long chains and
networks. Hot glass cools, chains unable to organize into a pattern.
Solidification has short-range order only.
 Amorphous structure occurs by adding impurities (Na+,Mg2+,Ca2+, Al3+).
 Impurities: interfere with formation of crystalline structure
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 Raw Materials
1. Glass forming oxides: usually the dominant Making Glass
constituent • Melting
SiO2, B2O3, P2O5, etc.
2. Fluxes: reduce melting temperatures
Na2O, PbO, K2O, Li2O, etc.
3. Property modifiers: added to tailor chemical
durability, expansion, viscosity, etc. : CaO, Al2O3,
etc.
4. Colorants: oxides with 3d, 4f electron structures;
minor additives (<1 wt%) Blowing
5. Fining agents: minor additives (<1 wt%) to help
promote bubble removal
As-, Sb-oxides, KNO3, NaNO3, NaCl,
fluorides, sulfates

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INFORMATION
 Manufacturing of Glass
The ingredients for making glass are:-
• 1. Limestone (CaCO3),
• 2. Soda ash (Na2CO3), and
• 3. Sand (SiO2)
• The manufacture of glass involves the following steps:
• 1. Limestone, sand and soda ash are mixed and poured into a tank
furnace. Tank furnace looks like a small swimming pool. It is very
hot (about 17000C). It is shallow at one end and deep at the other.
• 2. The raw material moves slowly towards the deeper end. Silica
melts at a very high temperature. In order to lower its melting
point, soda ash is added. Thus, energy is saved and a low cost is
incurred in the glass-making process.
• 3. Due to the presence of limestone, glass becomes insoluble in
water.
• 4. As the raw material melts, a clear jelly-like substance is
formed; this takes about a week’s time.
• 5. During this time bubbles of CO2 gas escape and some of the
raw material slowly changes into a mixture of silicates.
• 6. The clear jelly-like substance on cooling sets to form glass.
This is known as soda-lime glass.
 3 Most Common Commercial Glass
Types and Their Applications
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INFORMATION
Phosphate Glasses
• Phosphate glasses are mainly composed of the network former
P2O5 where the previously mentioned glasses use SiO2 or B2O3 as the
primary glass network formers.
• These glasses feature a high resistance to hydrofluoric acid, but
otherwise they have a relatively low resistance to chemical corrosion.
• Phosphate glasses can be advantageous over silica glasses for optical
fibre with high concentration of doping rare earth ions.
• Bioactive glass, which is the material of choice to promote bone growth
in the medical industry, is also a phosphate based glass composition.
Different mixtures
make different uses
Uses of Glass
• Add boron oxide
– Resistant to
heat
• Add limestone
– Bends light
better
Communication
• Optical Fiber
– Threadlike piece
of glass used to
transmit light
– Phone
– TV
– Internet