Unit-5

New Materials

Ceramics, an ancient and versatile art form, have captivated human imagination and creativity
for millennia. With roots dating back to prehistoric times, ceramics encompass a wide range of
materials and techniques used in the creation of functional and decorative objects. From delicate
porcelain to robust earthenware, ceramics offer a unique blend of durability, aesthetic beauty,
and practicality. This art form has evolved across different cultures, leaving an indelible mark on
human history and shaping the way we perceive and interact with the world around us.

The art of ceramics involves the manipulation and transformation of clay, a naturally occurring
material abundant in the Earth’s crust. Clay possesses remarkable plasticity, allowing it to be
shaped into various forms before undergoing a process of firing to achieve a durable, hardened
state. The firing process involves subjecting the clay to high temperatures, which causes
chemical and physical changes within the material, resulting in its characteristic strength and
permanence. Additionally, ceramics can be embellished through techniques like glazing, which
adds a decorative and protective layer to the surface, further enhancing the artistic and functional
qualities of the finished piece. From pottery and tableware to sculpture and architectural
elements, ceramics offer a diverse range of applications, making them an integral part of both
artistic expression and everyday life.

Types of Ceramics

In the field of material science, ceramics can be broadly classified into several types based on
their composition, structure, and properties. Here are some common types of ceramics:

Oxide Ceramics

Oxide ceramics are the most widely used type of ceramics and are composed of metallic and
non-metallic elements. Examples include alumina (aluminum oxide), zirconia (zirconium
dioxide), and magnesia (magnesium oxide). These ceramics exhibit excellent mechanical
strength, high melting points, and good electrical and thermal insulation properties. They find
applications in industries such as electronics, aerospace, and automotive.

Carbide Ceramics

Carbide ceramics are composed of carbon and metallic elements, such as silicon carbide (SiC)
and tungsten carbide (WC). They are known for their exceptional hardness, high melting points,
and resistance to wear and corrosion. Carbide ceramics are widely used in cutting tools,
abrasives, and industrial machinery components.

Nitride Ceramics

Nitride ceramics, such as silicon nitride (Si3N4) and aluminum nitride (AlN), are composed of
nitrogen and metallic elements. They possess excellent thermal conductivity, high strength, and
resistance to chemical attack. Nitride ceramics find applications in heat sinks, electronic
substrates, and components for high-temperature and high-stress environments.

Silicate Ceramics

Silicate ceramics are based on the silicate mineral structure and include materials like porcelain
and earthenware. They are composed of silica (silicon dioxide) combined with other oxides such
as alumina, magnesia, or calcium oxide. Silicate ceramics are known for their low cost, ease of
processing, and good insulation properties. They are commonly used for tableware, tiles, and
building materials.

Glass Ceramics

Glass ceramics, as the name suggests, exhibit properties of both glass and ceramics. They are
formed by controlled crystallization of specific compositions of glass. Glass ceramics combine
the transparency and amorphous nature of glass with the strength and thermal stability of
ceramics. They are used in cookware, dental restorations, and aerospace applications.

Applications of Ceramics

Ceramics have a wide range of applications across various industries due to their unique
properties and versatility. Here are five common applications of ceramics:

1. Electronics and Electrical Engineering: Ceramics are extensively used in the

electronics industry for their excellent electrical insulation properties. They are used in
the production of capacitors, resistors, insulators, and substrates for electronic
components. Ceramics such as alumina and zirconia are employed in circuit boards, spark
plugs, and sensors due to their high thermal and electrical conductivity.
2. Aerospace and Defense: Ceramics play a crucial role in aerospace and defense
applications where high strength, temperature resistance, and lightweight properties are
essential. Ceramic composites, such as carbon-carbon and carbon-silicon carbide, are
used in the manufacturing of aerospace components, including turbine blades, heat
 shields, and rocket nozzles, due to their ability to withstand extreme temperatures and
provide superior performance.
3. Biomedical and Dental: Ceramics have found extensive use in the biomedical and dental
fields due to their biocompatibility, inertness, and durability. Bioactive ceramics like
hydroxyapatite are used as bone substitutes and coatings for dental implants. Dental
crowns, bridges, and braces are often made from ceramic materials such as zirconia and
porcelain due to their natural appearance and strength.
4. Automotive Industry: Ceramics have made significant advancements in the automotive
industry. Ceramic materials are utilized in components like catalytic converters, brake
systems, and engine parts due to their high-temperature resistance, low friction
coefficient, and excellent wear resistance. Ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) are also
being explored for lightweight and high-performance engine components.
5. Architecture and Construction: Ceramics have long been used in architectural
applications due to their aesthetic appeal, durability, and resistance to environmental
factors. Ceramic tiles are commonly used for flooring, walls, and roofs. Additionally,
ceramic materials such as bricks and refractories find application in construction for their
ability to withstand high temperatures, chemical corrosion, and mechanical stress.

Advantages of Ceramics

Ceramics offer a multitude of advantages that make them highly desirable materials, including
exceptional strength, heat resistance, chemical resistance, electrical insulation, and aesthetic
appeal, among others.

 High Strength: Ceramics exhibit exceptional strength, making them ideal for
applications that require durability and resistance to wear and tear.
 Hardness: Ceramics are known for their hardness, which enables them to withstand
harsh conditions and resist scratching and abrasion.
 Heat Resistance: Ceramics have excellent thermal stability and can withstand high
temperatures without deforming or losing their structural integrity. This property makes
them suitable for use in high-temperature environments such as furnaces and engines.
 Chemical Resistance: Ceramics are highly resistant to chemical corrosion, allowing
them to be used in industries where exposure to harsh chemicals is common, such as the
chemical processing and pharmaceutical industries.
 Electrical Insulation: Ceramics are excellent electrical insulators, meaning they do not
conduct electricity. This property makes them ideal for applications in electrical and
electronic components where insulation is crucial.
 Low Thermal Expansion: Ceramics have low coefficients of thermal expansion,
meaning they expand and contract minimally with temperature changes. This property
makes them resistant to thermal shock and allows for precise dimensional stability.

Disadvantages of Ceramics
 While ceramics offer numerous advantages, they also have some drawbacks, such as brittleness,
difficulty in shaping complex designs, and a tendency to crack under sudden changes in
temperature or stress.

 Brittleness: Ceramics are known for their high hardness, but this also makes them brittle.
They are prone to cracking and breaking under stress or impact, which limits their use in
applications that require durability and resistance to mechanical forces.
 Limited ductility: Unlike metals, ceramics have limited ductility, meaning they cannot
be easily deformed or stretched without fracturing. This restricts their use in processes
that require shaping or forming, making them less versatile in manufacturing
applications.
 High processing costs: Ceramics often require specialized and energy-intensive
processes for manufacturing, such as high-temperature firing or sintering. These
processes can be costly, making ceramics less economically viable for certain
applications compared to other materials.
 Poor thermal shock resistance: Ceramics have low thermal shock resistance, meaning
they are prone to cracking or breaking when exposed to rapid temperature changes. This
limits their use in applications that involve extreme temperature variations, such as
aerospace components or cooking utensils.
 Difficulty in machining: Ceramics are extremely hard materials, which makes
machining and shaping them a challenging task. Specialized tools and techniques are
required, which can increase the cost and complexity of the manufacturing process.
Composites:
Composites are materials made by combining two or more different materials to create a new
material with unique properties:

Composite materials can be classified in a number of ways, including by the matrix material, the
reinforcing material structure, and the type of reinforcement:
 Matrix material
Composites can be classified by the material of the matrix, such as metal, ceramic, or polymer.
 Metal matrix composites (MMC): Made of a metallic matrix and a dispersed ceramic or metallic
phase.
 Ceramic matrix composites (CMC): Made of a ceramic matrix and reinforcing fibers. CMCs are
used in engineering applications that operate at temperatures of 800–1650 °C.
 Polymer matrix composites (PMC): Made of a matrix from a thermoset or thermoplastic and
embedded fibers.
Reinforcing material structure
 Composites can be classified by the structure of the reinforcing material, such as particulate,
fibrous, or flake.

Type of reinforcement
Composites can be classified by the type of reinforcement, such as random-fiber, short-fiber,
continuous-fiber, particulate, flake, or filler.
Fiber alignment
Fiber reinforced composites can be classified by the alignment of the fibers, such as
unidirectional, bidirectional, or multidirectional.
Fiber structure
Fiber reinforced composites can be classified by the structure of the reinforcement, such as
woven, nonwoven, braided, or knitted.
Some examples of composite materials include mud bricks, wood, fiberglass, Kevlar, carbon
fiber, and translucent concrete.

THE PROCESS FOR MAKING FIBER-REINFORCED PLASTICS

The process for making fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) is complex and precise, and involves
several steps:

 Fiber manufacture: Fibers are made by weaving, braiding, stitching, or knitting.

 Lay-up: The fibers are formed into the desired shape, either manually or automatically.
 Wetting: The fibers are impregnated with liquid resin.
 Consolidation: The wetted fibers are compressed to remove air and achieve the desired fiber
volume fraction.
 Solidification: The resin is cured or hardened through a thermosetting process.
 Cutting: The finished product is cut to the desired length.
 Storage and packaging: The cut lengths are stored and packaged for shipping.
Other processes for making FRP include:

 Bladder molding: Sheets of prepreg material are laid up in a mold with a balloon-like bladder.
 Compression molding: A compression molded part is made with a raw material that contains
reinforcing fibers.
 Mandrel wrapping: Sheets of prepreg material are wrapped around a steel or aluminum mandrel.
 Wet layup: The fiber reinforcement and matrix are combined as they are placed on the forming
tool.
  Chopper gun: Continuous strands of fiberglass are chopped and combined with a resin.
The quality and performance of the FRP depends on the selection of materials, preparation of the
mold, and the other steps in the process.
Metallic glasses:

Metallic glasses are a class of materials that have a disordered atomic arrangement, and are also
known as amorphous alloys. They are made by forming metallic alloys into a glass, which gives
them unique properties. Some types of metallic glasses include:

 Bulk metallic glasses

These glasses have an amorphous structure, meaning they don't follow a regular pattern like
crystalline metallic alloys.
 Zirconium-based bulk metallic glasses
These glasses are biocompatible and have a low allergenic potential. They also have a high
strength-to-weight ratio, which is important for load-bearing implants.
 Cu-based alloy metallic glasses
These glasses can form high GFA alloys, even in a binary metallic system with a maximum
thickness of 2 mm.

Melt spinning systems

A melt spinner consists of a copper roller over which a refractory tube with fine nozzle is
placed. The refractory tube is provided with induction heater as shown in fig 4.

The metal alloy is melted by induction heating under inert gas atmosphere (helium or argon).
The properly super heated molten alloy is ejected through the fine nozzle at the bottom of the
refractory tube. The molten alloy falls on the copper roller which is rotated at high speed. Thus,
the alloy is suddenly cooled to form metallic glass. In this method a continuous ribbon of
metallic glass can be obtained.
 Shape memory alloys
Shape memory alloys (SMAs) are materials that can be deformed at a certain temperature but
return to their original shape when heated or cooled. This effect is called the shape memory
effect (SME). SMAs are also known as memory metals, smart metals, smart alloys, and muscle
wire.

SMAs have two phases:

 Martensite: The low-temperature phase

 Austenite: The high-temperature phase
SMAs can recover strains of up to about 10%. They can be activated by a variety of external
stimuli, including:
temperature, stress, strain, chemicals, ph, light, and magnetic field.

Some examples of SMAs include:

 Copper-based SMAs: These include alloys of copper with aluminum and zinc.
Nickel-titanium (NiTi) SMAs:
 Nickel-titanium (NiTi) SMAs: NASA's Glenn Research Center has developed a NiTi SMA
with Hafnium (Hf) and Zirconium (Zr) that has a wider transformation temperature range and
greater dimensional stability.
 The pseudoelastic effect
The pseudoelastic effect, also known as superelasticity, is the ability of a material to recover its
original shape after being deformed by an external load. This occurs when a material undergoes a
phase transformation from austenite to martensite, and then back to austenite when the stress is
released.

Here are some key points about the pseudoelastic effect:

 Materials
The pseudoelastic effect is exhibited by shape memory alloys (SMAs), which are a type of
smart material.
 Temperature
The pseudoelastic effect is observed at temperatures above the austenite finish temperature.
 Stress-strain hysteresis
The pseudoelastic effect is characterized by stress-strain hysteresis, which is associated with
the transformation of mechanical energy into thermal energy.
 Strength differential effect
In pseudoelastic NiTi shape memory wires, compression recovery forces are higher than
tension forces. This is known as the strength differential effect.
 Potential uses
SMAs have the potential to replace or complement conventional materials, and could lead to
improvements in performance and safety.
Nickel titanium (NiTi) alloy, also known as Nitinol, is a shape memory alloy with many
applications in the medical, engineering, and other fields:

 Biomedical
NiTi alloys are used in a variety of medical devices, including implants for orthodontics,
surgery, and orthopedics. They are biocompatible, have good corrosion resistance, and exhibit
shape memory and superelastic effects.
 Engineering
NiTi alloys are used in civil engineering to control vibrations and seismic isolations. They can
also be used in thermal and electrical actuators, damping systems, and heat engines.
 Eyeglass frames
NiTi alloys are more flexible than steel and lighter than conventional metals, making them a
comfortable and durable choice for eyeglass frames.
 Other applications
NiTi alloys can also be used in dental wires, self-bending spoons, and retractable antennas.

Nanomaterials:
 Nanomaterials are materials with at least one dimension measuring 100 nanometers or less, and
can be found in many products and applications:

 Composition
Nanomaterials can be made from any element and are often categorized as organic, inorganic,
or hybrid.
 Properties
Nanomaterials have unique properties, such as increased catalytic activity, improved solubility,
and different optical behavior.
 Applications
Nanomaterials are used in a wide range of products, including cosmetics, textiles, sunscreens,
medical supplies, and building materials. They are also used in healthcare, electronics,
information technology, and environmental protection.
 Examples
Some examples of nanomaterials include:
 Titanium-oxide: Used in sunscreen to improve UV protection
 Carbon nanotubes: Used to make lighter bats in the sports industry
 Mobile pigment nanoparticles: Used in the military to create more effective camouflage
Nanomaterials can appear in nature, such as in the iridescence of butterfly wings and the sticking
power of gecko footpads. The science and applications of nanomaterials is called
nanotechnology.

Nanomaterials Preparation:

Nanomaterials are prepared using chemical, biological, or physical processes. The two main
approaches for synthesizing nanomaterials are top-down and bottom-up:

 Top-down
Bulk materials are mechanically broken down into nano-sized particles. Some examples of top-
down methods include:
 Mechanical milling: A cost-effective method that uses small glass, ceramic, or stainless steel
pebbles to grind materials in a closed container
 Laser ablation: A powerful laser beam hits a target material to create nanoparticles
 Sputtering: High-energy particles, such as plasma or gas, bombard solid surfaces to produce
nanomaterials
Bottom-up
 Fine particles are assembled to build nanomaterials through self-assembly or co-precipitation
methods. Some examples of bottom-up methods include:

 Chemical vapor deposition (CVD): A common process that uses heat to break down a substance
into its elemental form, then deposits it on a surface to build up into a new structure
 Hydrothermal processing: A chemical procedure for preparing nanomaterials
 Sol–gel technique: A chemical procedure for preparing nanomaterials
 Co-precipitation: A chemical procedure for preparing nanomaterials

PROPERTIES :-

Nanomaterials have many properties, including:

 Size: Nanomaterials are defined as having at least two dimensions smaller than 100 nanometers.
 Shape: Nanomaterials can exist in various shapes.
 Chemical composition: Nanomaterials have a specific elemental composition and surface
chemistry.
 Optical properties: The optical properties of nanomaterials are dependent on their size, with the
optical band gap increasing as the particle size decreases.
 Magnetic properties: The uneven distribution of electrons in nanomaterials gives them
magnetic properties.
 Surface properties: The surface properties of nanomaterials can be modified to alter their
properties.
 Bandgap energy: The bandgap energy of nanomaterials can be influenced by changes to their
surface properties.
Nanomaterials can be found in many forms, including nanopowders, aerosols, colloids, and
solids. Some examples of nanomaterials include:

CARBON NANOTUBES: These are allotropes of carbon that can be single-walled or multi-
walled.

 Quantum dots: These are semiconductor nanocrystals that exhibit quantum size effects in their
optical and electronic properties.
 Metal oxide nanomaterials: These are made up of positive metallic ions and negative oxygen
ions. Examples include silicon dioxide, titanium oxide, zinc oxide, and aluminum oxide
 The two main types of carbon nanotubes are single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and
multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs):

 Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs)

These nanotubes are made by rolling up a sheet of graphene into a hollow cylinder. They have
a one-dimensional structure and a diameter of around 0.5–2.0 nanometers. SWCNTs can be
classified into three types: armchair, zigzag, and chiral. The design of the nanotube is
determined by how the graphene is folded.
 Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)
These nanotubes are made up of multiple single-walled carbon nanotubes nested inside each
other. MWCNTs have an outer diameter and an inner diameter. Double- and triple-walled
carbon nanotubes are special cases of MWCNTs.
Carbon nanotubes have unique electrical and mechanical properties due to their one-atom thick
walls. They can be synthesized using chemical vapor deposition (CVD), which involves
introducing a carbon-containing gas into a high-temperature reactor