Materials Science World Congress

The backbone of advanced materials technology is ceramics and composite materials, their unique properties combined with a wide variety of applications. Ceramics are inorganic, nonmetallic hard materials which possess good high-temperature stability besides immunity against chemical attack. The material is usually made up of clay, earthen minerals, and water mixed together and then fired at very high temperatures to achieve their final properties. Zirconia and silicon carbide, among other advanced ceramics, have been engineered for special applications. Compared to others in a similar class of materials, these show superior strength and thermal resistance.

On the other hand, composites can be defined as combining two or more distinct materials to yield properties that are significantly better than those possessed by the individual components. Typically, the composite is a matrix material such as a polymer, metal, or ceramic where the component—fibers or particles—reinforces it. So, the mechanical properties could thus be tailored so that it has significant improvements in strength-to-weight ratios and durability and is henceforth the material that finds its best application in aerospace, automotive, or civil engineering.

Then, with ceramics in composite materials, it has advanced so that the development of ceramic matrix composites has resulted in performance under extreme conditions. There are special applications of CMCs in aerospace wherein light weightiness, strength at high temperatures, and also structural integrity are in demand. Thus, these materials are hostile to environments, and they are used in components such as part of a jet engine as well as in a gas turbine.

Processing may range from slip casting and extrusion to 3D printing. If the manufacturing technologies are high-tech, then their production also opens for control of material properties and geometries almost without exception.

Generally or summarily, ceramics and composite materials are important or rather form the nucleus of some few companies in having distinctive features that coincide with the new demands of engineering. Development through research in these areas is taking tremendous strides in terms of both performance and application, hence making them highly relevant for future technological breakthroughs.