Browse Items (8 total)

Zirconia, ZrO2, is a ceramic with an exceptionally high melting point -- 2760 C when pure. It has the highest useful strength and toughness at room temperature of all the readily available ceramics. It is used (with 5% CaO) as a firebrick, and, in…

Calcium carbonate is a common substance found in things like shells, rocks, pearls, and shells. Its most common natural forms are chalk, limestone, and marble, produced by the sedimentation of the shells of small fossilized snails, shellfish, and…

Silicon is the second most abundant element, exceeded only by oxygen and making up 26% of the earth's crust by weight. It is found largely as silicon oxides such as sand (silica), quartz, rock crystal, amethyst, agate, flint, jasper and opal, and as…

Silicon carbide (SiC, carborundum), made by fusing sand and coke at 2200 C, is the grit on high quality sandpaper. It is very hard and maintains its strength to 1400C high temperature, has good thermal shock resistance, excellent abrasion…

Alumina (Al2O3) is to technical ceramics what mild steel is to metals - cheap, easy to process, the workhorse of the industry. It is the material of spark plugs, electrical insulators and ceramic substrates for microcircuits. In single-crystal form…

Graphite, archaically referred to as plumbago, is a crystalline form of carbon, a semimetal, a native element mineral, and one of the allotropes of carbon. Graphite is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Therefore, it is used in…

Silicon nitride, Si3N4, is a man made compound, synthesized as a powder through several different chemical reactions. Parts made from these powders are sintered by standard methods to produce a ceramic with a unique set of properties. High…

Tungsten carbide (WC) is most commonly used in the form of a 'cemented' carbide, or cermet - particles of WC held by a small amount (5-20%) of metallic binder, usually cobalt. Its exceptional hardness and stability make it an attractive material when…