Applications and Processing of Ceramics

Ceramics are compounds between metallic and nonmetallic elements for

which the inter-atomic bonds are either ionic or predominantly ionic.
The term ceramics comes from the Greek word keramikos which
means burnt stuff. Characteristic properties of ceramics are, in fact, optimized
through thermal treatments. They exhibit physical properties those are different
from that of metallic materials. Thus metallic materials, ceramics, and even
polymers tend to complement each other in service.
Classification of Ceramics:-

CERAMICS

Glasses

Clay Products Refactories Abrasives

Cements Advance Ceramics

Ceramics greatly differ in their basic composition. Classification of ceramics

based on their specific applications and composition are two most important ways
among many.
Based on their composition, ceramics are classified as:
Oxides,
Carbides,
Nitrides,
Sulfides,
Fluorides, etc.
The other important classification of ceramics is based on their application, such as:
Glasses,
Clay products,
Refractories,
Abrasives,
Cements,
Advancedceramics.

In general, ceramic materials used for engineering applications can be divided into two
groups: traditional ceramics, and the engineering ceramics. Typically, traditional
ceramics are made from three basic components: clay, silica (flint) and feldspar. For
example bricks, tiles and porcelain articles. However, engineering ceramics consist of
highly pure compounds of aluminium oxide (Al2O3), silicon carbide (SiC) and silicon
nitride (Si3N4).
Glasses: glasses are a familiar group of ceramics containers, windows, mirrors, lenses,
etc. They are non-crystalline silicates containing other oxides, usually CaO, Na2O, K2O
and Al2O3 which influence the glass properties and its color. Typical property of glasses
that is important in engineering applications is its response to heating. There is no
definite temperature at which the liquid transforms to a solid as with crystalline materials.
A specific temperature, known as glass transition temperature or fictive temperature is
defined based on viscosity above which material is named as super cooled liquid or
liquid, and below it is termed as glass.
Clay products: clay is the one of most widely used ceramic raw material. It is found in
great abundance and popular because of ease with which products are made. Clay
products are mainly two kinds structural products (bricks, tiles, sewer pipes) and whitewares (porcelain, chinaware, pottery, etc.).
Refractories: these are described by their capacity to withstand high temperatures without
melting or decomposing; and their inertness in severe environments. Thermal insulation
is also an important functionality of refractories.
Abrasive ceramics: these are used to grind, wear, or cut away other material. Thus the
prime requisite for this group of materials is hardness or wear resistance in addition to
high toughness. As they may also exposed to high temperatures, they need to exhibit
some refractoriness. Diamond, silicon carbide, tungsten carbide, silica sand, aluminium
oxide / corundum are some typical examples of abrasive ceramic materials.
Cements: cement, plaster of paris and lime come under this group of ceramics. The
characteristic property of these materials is that when they are mixed with water, they
form slurry which sets subsequently and hardens finally. Thus it is possible to form
virtually any shape. They are also used as bonding phase, for example between
construction bricks.
Advanced ceramics: these are newly developed and manufactured in limited range for
specific applications. Usually their electrical, magnetic and optical properties and
combination of properties are exploited. Typical applications: heat engines, ceramic
armors, electronic packaging, etc.
Some typical ceramics and respective applications are as follows:

Aluminium oxide / Alumina (Al2O3): it is one of most commonly used ceramic material. It
is used in many applications such as to contain molten metal, where material is operated
at very high temperatures under heavy loads, as insulators in spark plugs, and in some
unique applications such as dental and medical use. Chromium doped alumina is used for
making lasers.
Aluminium nitride (AlN): because of its typical properties such as good electrical
insulation but high thermal conductivity, it is used in many electronic applications such
as in electrical circuits operating at a high frequency. It is also suitable for integrated
circuits. Other electronic ceramics include barium titanate (BaTiO3) and Cordierite
(2MgO-2Al2O3-5SiO2).
Diamond (C): it is the hardest material known to available in nature. It has many
applications such as industrial abrasives, cutting tools, abrasion resistant coatings, etc. it
is, of course, also used in jewelry.
Lead zirconium titanate (PZT): it is the most widely used piezoelectric material, and is
used as gas igniters, ultrasound imaging, in underwater detectors.
Silica (SiO2): is an essential ingredient in many engineering ceramics, thus is the most
widely used ceramic material. Silica-based materials are used in thermal insulation,
abrasives, laboratory glassware, etc. it also found application in communications media
as integral part of optical fibers. Fine particles of silica are used in tires, paints, etc.
Silicon carbide (SiC): it is known as one of best ceramic material for very high
temperature applications. It is used as coatings on other material for protection from
extreme temperatures. It is also used as abrasive material. It is used as reinforcement in
many metallic and ceramic based composites. It is a semiconductor and often used in
high temperature electronics. Silicon nitride (Si3N4) has properties similar to those of SiC
but is somewhat lower, and found applications in such as automotive and gas turbine
engines.
Titanium oxide (TiO2): it is mostly found as pigment in paints. It also forms part of
certain glass ceramics. It is used to making other ceramics like BaTiO3.
Titanium boride (TiB2): it exhibits great toughness properties and hence found
applications in armor production. It is also a good conductor of both electricity and heat.
Uranium oxide (UO2): it is mainly used as nuclear reactor fuel. It has exceptional
dimensional stability because its crystal structure can accommodate the products of
fission process.
Yttrium aluminium garnet (YAG, Y3Al5O12): it has main application in lasers (Nd-YAG
lasers).

Zirconia (ZrO2): it is also used in producing many other ceramic materials. It is also used
in making oxygen gas sensors, as additive in many electronic ceramics. Its single crystals
are part of jewelry.
Fabrication and processing of ceramics
Ceramics melt at high temperatures and they exhibit a brittle behavior under tension. As a
result, the conventional melting, casting and thermo-mechanical processing routes are not
suitable to process the polycrystalline ceramics. Inorganic glasses, though, make use of
lower melting temperatures due to formation of eutectics. Hence, most ceramic products
are made from ceramic powders through powder processing starting with ceramic
powders. The powder processing of ceramics is very close to that of metals, powder
metallurgy. However there is an important consideration in ceramic-forming that is more
prominent than in metal forming: it is dimensional tolerance. Post forming shrinkage is
much higher in ceramics processing because of the large differential between the final
density and the as-formed density.
Glasses, however, are produced by heating the raw materials to an elevated
temperature above which melting occurs. Most commercial glasses are of the
silica-soda-lime variety, where silica is supplied in form of common quartz sand, soda
(Na2O) in form of soda ash (Na2CO3) while the lime (CaO) is supplied in form of
limestone (CaCO3). Different forming methods- pressing, blowing, drawing and fiber
forming- are widely in practice to fabricate glass products. Thick glass objects such as
plates and dishes are produced by pressing, while the blowing is used to produce
objects like jars, bottles and light bulbs. Drawing is used to form long objects like
tubes, rods, fibers, whiskers etc. The pressing and blowing process is shown in figure

Figure : Schematic diagram of pressing and blowing processes

Ceramic powder processing consists of powder production by milling/grinding, followed

by fabrication of green product, which is then consolidated to obtain the final product. A
powder is a collection of fine particles. Synthesis of powder involves getting it ready for
shaping by crushing, grinding, separating impurities, blending different powders, drying
to form soft agglomerates. Different techniques such as compaction, tape casting, slip
casting, injection molding and extrusion are then used to convert processed powders into
a desired shape to form what is known as green ceramic. The green ceramic is then
consolidated further using a high-temperature treatment known as sintering or firing.
As-mined raw materials are put through a milling or grinding operation in which particle
size is reduced to and physically liberate the minerals of interest from the rest of the
gangue material. Wet milling is much more common with ceramic materials than with
metals. The combination of dry powders with a dispersant such as water is called slurry.
Ball- and vibratory- milling is employed to further reduce the size of minerals and to
blend different powders.
Ceramic powders prepared are shaped using number of techniques, such as casting,
compaction, extrusion/hydro-plastic forming, injection molding. Tape casting, also
known as doctor blade process, is used for the production of thin ceramic tapes. The
schematic diagram of tape casting process is shown in figure 10.2. In this technique
slurry containing ceramic particles, solvent, plasticizers, and binders is then made to flow
under a blade and onto a plastic substrate. The shear thinning slurry spreads under the
blade. The tape is then dried using clean hot air. Later-on the tape is subjected to binder
burnout and sintering operations. Tape thickness normally range between 0.1 and 2 mm.
Commercially important electronic packages based on alumina substrates and barium
titanate capacitors are made using this technique. A schematic diagram of doctor blade
process is shown in the figure.

Figure : Schematic diagram of tape casting process

Slip casting is another casting technique widely used. This technique uses aqueous
slurry, also known as slip, of ceramic powder. The slip is poured into a plaster of Paris
(CaSO4:2H2O) mold. As the water from slurry begins to move out by capillary action, a

thick mass builds along the mold wall. When sufficient product thickness is built, the rest
of the slurry is poured out (drain casting). It is also possible to continue to pour
more slurry in to form a solid piece (solid casting). The schematic diagram of
slip casting process is shown in figure .

Figure Schematic diagram of slip casting process

Extrusion and injection molding techniques are used to make products like tubes,
bricks, tiles etc. The basis for extrusion process is a viscous mixture of ceramic
particles, binder and other additives, which is fed through an extruder where a
continuous shape of green ceramic is produced. The product is cut to required lengths
and then dried and sintered. Injection molding of ceramics is similar to that of
polymers. Ceramic powder is mixed with a plasticizer, a thermoplastic polymer, and
additives. Then the mixture is injected into a die with use of an extruder. The
polymer is then burnt off and the rest of the ceramic shape is sintered at
suitable high temperatures. Ceramic injection molding is suitable for producing
complex shapes. Figure shows schematically the injection molding process

Figure: Schematic diagram of Injection molding

Most popular technique to produce relatively simple shapes of ceramic products in large
numbers is combination of compaction and sintering. For example: electronic ceramics,

magnetic ceramics, cutting tools, etc. Compaction process is used to make green
ceramics that have respectable strength and can be handled and machined. Time for
compaction process varies from within a minute to hours depending on the complexity
and size of the product. Basically compaction process involves applying equal pressure in
all directions to a mixture ceramic powder to increase its density. In some cases,
compaction involves application of pressure using oil/fluid at room temperatures, called
cold iso-static pressing (CIP). Then the green ceramic is sintered with or without
pressure. CIP is used to achieve higher ceramic density or where the compaction of more
complex shapes is required. In some instances, parts may be produced under conditions
in which compaction and sintering are conducted under pressure at elevated temperatures.
This technique is known as hot iso-static pressing (HIP), and is used for refractory and
covalently bonded ceramics that do not show good bonding characteristics under CIP.
HIP is also used when close to none porosity is the requirement. Another characteristic
feature of HIP is high densities can be achieved without appreciable grain growth.
Sintering is the firing process applied to green ceramics to increase its strength. Sintering
is carried out below the melting temperature thus no liquid phase presents during
sintering. However, for sintering to take place, the temperature must generally be
maintained above one-half the absolute melting point of the material. During sintering,
the green ceramic product shrinks and experiences a reduction in porosity. This leads to
an improvement in its mechanical integrity. These changes involve different mass
transport mechanisms that cause coalescence of powder particles into a more dense mass.
With sintering, the grain boundary and bulk atomic diffusion contribute to densification,
surface diffusion and evaporation condensation can cause grain growth, but do not cause
densification. After pressing, ceramic particles touch one another. During initial stages of
sintering, necks form along the contact regions between adjacent particles thus every
interstice between particles becomes a pore. The pore channels in the compact grow in
size, resulting in a significant increase in strength. With increase in sintering time, pores
become smaller in size. The driving force for sintering process is the reduction in total
particle surface area, and thus the reduction in total surface energy. During sintering,
composition, impurity control and oxidation protection are provided by the use of
vacuum conditions or inert gas atmospheres.