Nanotechnology & Material Sciences

Ceramics, Glasses & Composite Materials

A ceramic is a non-metallic inorganic solid made from metallic or non-metallic compounds, usually crystalline oxides, nitrides, or carbides that have been shaped and then hardened by heating to high temperatures. Ceramic materials are brittle, hard and resistant to compression and weak to shear, tension and corrosion. Ceramics have very strong ionic (and/or) covalent bonds. The main constituent classes of technical ceramics are oxides, nitrites, and carbides. Technical ceramics are used to manufacture components for applications in various puppet heads, industrial fields, electronics and turbochargers, and more. Composites are materials that are physically made up of two or more different or man-made elements that have different physical or chemical properties that are stronger than those of the individual materials. There are different types of composites, one made of fiber-reinforced polymers and the other made of grain-reinforced composites. Fiber-reinforced polymer composites are also known as polymer matrix composites. Synthetic materials are widely used to manufacture tennis, aviation, helicopter rotors, sports rackets, badminton and squash, and boats such as kayaks and dinghys.