Materials Chemistry of Ceramics

This book provides fundamental knowledge of ceramics science and technology in a compact volume. Based on inorganic chemistry, it is intended as a reader for graduate students and young researchers beginning work in ceramics. The importance of the book is that it provides a scientific understanding of structure, properties, and processing from the chemical aspect, leading to creation of future ceramics. Ceramics have high hardness, strength, thermal and chemical stability, as well as various electromagnetic functions. To take full advantage of ceramics, their use has been advanced to engineering and electronic ceramics. Most ceramics have been fabricated by powder processing, and new technologies have also evolved such as CVD and sol-gel methods: new ceramics aimed at new functions of highly pure oxides and artificial nitrides, carbides, and borides; fine ceramics focused on precise control of composition and microstructure; and design of unique morphology, such as nanoparticles, nanofibers, nanosheets, mesoporous materials, and hybrids. Materials are composed of atoms and molecules. They are assembled into crystals and are amorphous, leading to 3-D micro/nano structures. In addition to the topics described above, this book shows the importance of chemistry for materials design at the nanometer scale, and that chemistry develops new fields of environment, energy, informatics, biomaterials, and other areas.

Chapter 1 Crystal Structures of Inorganic Materials

Junichi Hojo and Miki Inada

Chapter 2 Phase Equilibrium and Phase Diagram

Junichi Tatami

Chapter 3 Solid State Reactions and Sintering

Satoshi Tanaka

Chapter 4 Powder and Thin Film Synthesis

Toshinobu Yogo

Chapter 5 Chemical Functions of Ceramics

Shu Yin and Tsugio Sato

Chapter 6 Biological Functions of Ceramics

Masakazu Kawashita

Chapter 7 Mechanical Property of Ceramics

Junichi Matsushita

Chapter 8 Electromagnetic Properties of Ceramics

Akira Kishimoto

Chapter 9 Optical Properties of Ceramics

Krisana Kobwittaya and Takanori Watari

Yoshiyuki Sugahara

Junichi Hojo received his Ph.D. in engineering from Kyushu University (Japan) in 1980. He became a professor there in 1994  and emeritus professor in 2013. From 2006 to 2010 he was Vice-President of the Ceramic Society of Japan and was Editor of Materials Letters (Elsevier) from 2006 to the present. Prof. Hojo served on the Advisory Board of the World Academy of Ceramics from 2010 to 2014, was a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society in 2010, and Vice-President of the Japan Society of Powder and Powder Metallurgy from 2014 to 2016. His major research work is in the design of ceramics nanoparticles and their functions, and the precise control of sintered microstructures.