Recent Advances in Ceramic Materials Research

Ceramic materials are usually considered as most brittle since they are full of defects, sometimes difficult to determine, that affect all their properties, from functional to mechanical. This book presents the most recent advances in the synthesis, processing and characterization of some ceramic materials. Hybrid organoceramics, lead-free piezoelectric ceramics, dental zirconia, raw clays and scintillator materials are presented, as well as different methods to evaluate their suitability for certain applications, such as a new approach based on the response surface methodology, the instrumented nanoindentation, or the use of thermal phonons. The relationship between functional characteristics of these materials and the manufacturing technology used to obtain them is also discussed in some chapters. A full review of a novel processing method to fabricate ceramic nanocomposites using SPS is also included.