Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering

Subject: Ceramic Materials

Title: History of Ceramic Materials & Justify they are Oldest
and Newest Materials
Submitted to: Dr. Muhammad Asif Rafiq
Submitted by: Raza Ali (2018-MM-34)
Date: October 14, 2020

University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore

 Table of Contents
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….2
Brief History of Ceramics…………………………………………………………………...2
Ceramics as Oldest and Newest Materials…………………………………………………..5
Wear related applications…………………………………………………………………5
Transport applications………………………………………………………………….…5
Energy and Environment applications……………………………………………………5
Electronic applications…………………………………………………………...............5
Health applications……………………………………………………………………….6
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………..6
References…………………………………………………………………………………..6

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 History of Ceramics
Introduction:
 Ceramics are the solid compounds that are formed by the application of heat, and
sometimes heat and pressure, comprising at least two elements provided one of them is
non-metal or non-metallic elemental solid. The other element (s) may be a metal or
another non-metallic elemental solid.
 Ceramics have become the essential part of our lives. We live in the house made of
ceramic materials. We eat in ceramic utensils. We use instruments in our daily life made
up of ceramics like microchips, capacitors or resistors in computer, liquid crystal TV
etc. [1].

Brief History of Ceramics:

 Ceramic objects are almost as old as the human race. Ceramics is one of the most
ancient industries going back thousands of years.
 Once humans discovered that clay could be found in abundance and formed into objects
by first mixing with water and then firing, a key industry was born.
 The oldest known ceramic artifact is dated as early as 28,000 BCE (BCE = Before
Common Era), during the late Paleolithic period. It is a statuette of a woman, named
the Venus of Dolní Věstonice, from a small prehistoric settlement near Brno, in the
Czech Republic. In this location, hundreds of clay figurines representing Ice Age
animals were also uncovered near the remains of a horseshoe-shaped kiln.
 The first examples of pottery appeared in Eastern Asia several thousand years later. In
the Xianrendong cave in China, fragments of pots dated to 18,000-17,000 BCE have
been found. It is believed that from China the use of pottery successively spread to
Japan and the Russian Far East region where archeologists have found shards of
ceramic artifacts dating to 14,000 BCE.
 Use of ceramics increased dramatically during the Neolithic period, with the
establishment of settled communities dedicated to agriculture and farming. Starting
approximately in 9,000 BCE, clay-based ceramics became popular as containers for
water and food, art objects, tiles and bricks and their use spread from Asia to the Middle
East and Europe. The early products were just dried in the sun or fired at low
temperature (below 1,000°C) in rudimentary kilns dug into the ground.
 It is known that, around 7,000 BCE, people were already using sharp tools made from
obsidian, a natural occurring volcanic glass.
 Simple glass items such as beads have been discovered in Mesopotamia and Egypt
dating to 3,500 BCE. At the beginning of the Bronze Age, glazed pottery was produced
in Mesopotamia. However, it was not until 1,500 BCE that Egyptians started building
factories to create glassware for ointments and oils.
 One of the first breakthroughs in the fabrication of ceramics was the invention of the
wheel, in 3,500 BCE. The introduction of the wheel allowed for the utilization of
the wheel-forming technique to produce ceramic artifacts with radial symmetry.

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From 3500 BCE to onward we can summarize in a table given below [2]:

Year(s) Development

3,000 BCE Glazed pottery is produced in Mesopotamia.

1,500 BCE Egyptians start building factories for production of glassware.

700 BCE Ceramic pottery becomes artwork in Attic Greece.

600 CE Chinese introduce porcelain.

1400s High-temperature furnaces are developed in Europe for

metallurgical use.

1500s High-temperature refractory materials are introduced to build

furnaces for making steel, glass, ceramics, and cements,
leading the way to the industrial revolution.

Mid 1800s Porcelain electrical insulators and incandescent light bulbs are
invented.

1920s High-strength quartz-enriched porcelain for insulators,

alumina spark plugs, glass windows for automobiles, and
ceramic capacitors are introduced.

1940s Research on oxide magnetic materials (ferrites) and

ferroelectric materials begins.

1950s Ceramic capacitors based on barium titanate are developed.

1960s Alumina insulators for voltages over 220 kV are introduced

and applications for carbides and nitrides are developed. The
first yttria-based transparent ceramic is invented. Bioglass is
also discovered.

1970s Partially stabilized zirconia is developed. High-performance

cellular ceramic substrates for catalytic converter and
particulate filters for diesel engines are commercialized.

1980s Ceramic high-temperature superconductors are developed.

1990s Multilayer ceramic circuits (low-temperature co-fired

ceramics) are commercialized. Low-fusing ceramics are
introduced for dental prostheses. The first whisker-reinforced
alumina composites are fabricated by hot-pressing.
Polycrystalline neodymium-yttrium aluminum garnets for
solid-state lasers are developed.

Late 1990s Nanotechnology initiatives begin proliferating worldwide.

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 Year(s) Development

Late 1990s The robocasting process for 3D printing of ceramics is

developed.

2000s By creating ZrB2/HfB2-based composites that resist

temperatures up to 2,200°C, NASA revives interest in the
development of ultrahigh temperature ceramics (UHTCs) for
fabrication of hypersonic aircraft and reusable space vehicles.

2010s Various processes are being developed for 3D printing of

technical ceramics. In 2017 the first hyper-elastic bone is
created by 3D printing.
Table: Advancement in ceramics in different centuries and decades
Figure below also represents the history of ceramics:

Figure: History of Ceramics

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Ceramics as Oldest and Newest Materials
From history of ceramics we get an idea that how old ceramics are. Ceramics are the newest
materials as well. Generally old or traditional ceramics are clay based but advanced ceramics
are based on oxides, nitrides and carbides. It is believed that the 21st century will depend on
high-performance advanced ceramics. Advanced ceramics are the newest ceramics which have
demonstrated phenomenal performance under severe conditions in a number of applications,
which include wear-related applications, transport, energy and the environment, health, high
temperature, communication and electronic applications [3].
Wear related applications
 Advanced ceramics have surpassed cemented carbides in cutting tool applications due
to their greater hot hardness and strength, which enables high-speed and efficient
machining.
Transport applications
 Several components manufactured from advanced ceramics are regarded as being more
suited to meeting future emission regulations and improving fuel economy, owing to
their lower weight, durability and lower cost.
 There are a number of components being produced for the automotive industry,
including Si3N4 fuel injector links and high-pressure pumping plunges, ZrO2 injector
metering, exhaust gas particle filters, bearings and high coefficient of friction ceramic
composite brakes.
Energy and environment applications
 Engines had to operate at higher temperatures than for better fuel efficiency. This led
to the development of high-temperature ceramics capable of handling high
temperatures without deterioration in their properties. The main material candidates are
based on silicon carbide, silicon nitride, and partially stabilized zirconia.
 The major application of advanced ceramics in the environmental industry is in hot gas
filtration elements capable of operating at high temperatures. Such filters are used as
catalyst support due to their high surface area, good mechanical properties and thermal
shock resistance, and most importantly the ability to maintain such properties at
elevated temperatures. A typical application is in catalytic converters, which are
extensively used to remove NOx during high temperature combustion of liquid or
gaseous fuels.
Electronic applications
 Advanced ceramics in current use in such applications include silicon carbide in
semiconductor devices used in power electronics, barium titanate (BaTi4O9), zirconia
titanate (ZrTiO4), and other ceramics with simple and complex perovskite structures,
which are used extensively in microwave applications due to their low dielectric loss
and high permittivity.
 Piezo-ceramics are widely used for electromechanical sensors and actuators.

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Health applications
 Advanced ceramics are increasingly used for prostheses due to a combination of
excellent properties which include biocompatibility, wear resistance, stability and
strength.
 In 1970, a French orthopedic surgeon successfully replaced the conventional stainless
steel head of a hip joint with a high-density, high purity sintered alumina joint.
 In February 2003, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the first ceramic-
on-ceramic hip joint replacements. Since then, ceramic materials have been utilized in
the manufacture of orthopedic devices for hip joint replacements and dental procedures,
with alumina (Al2O3) and zirconia (ZrO2) based ceramics topping the list.
 Zirconia is used extensively for dental restoration and was developed into a US$700
million market within a period of less than 15 years.
Conclusion
Due to these applications in the modern fields and a solution to major modern problems we can
say that ceramics are the newest materials. History also prove that ceramics are the oldest
materials as well.

References:
[1] https://www.explainthatstuff.com/ceramics.html
[2] https://ceramics.org/about/what-are-engineered-ceramics-and-glass/brief-history-of-
ceramics-and-glass
[3] Advanced ceramics — the new frontier in modern-day technology: Part I by W.R.
Matizamhuka http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2411-9717/2018/v118n7a9