Ceramic products are a crucial part of daily life. In the kitchen, it's probable that your coffee mugs, plates, bowls, canisters, and other dishware are constructed of ceramics. The ceramic products in your bathroom probably range from a soap-dish to a toothbrush holder. This begs the question: what are ceramics, exactly?
If you’ve ever in your life taken a lesson in ancient history or archaeology, you already know that ceramics are almost as ancient as human civilization. The term “ceramic”-which means “of pottery” in Greek-indicates any type of nonmetallic, inorganic solid that has been created by means of heat rapidly followed by cooling. The oldest ceramics from ca. 25,000 BC are some figures which were formed largely from clay that had been hardened in fire. Thousands of years later, ceramics began to be glazed and then “fired” in order to create the nonporous, smooth surfaces which we eat and drink off of nowadays.
Today, technical ceramics can be seen just about everywhere. Not only does the ceramic field deliver day-to-day products such as plates and soap dishes, but they also manufacture remarkably advanced products such as semiconductors. The engineering of ceramics is a highly specialized branch of the ceramics industry. One great example of the science of ceramics is the shielding equipped on NASA's space shuttles which prevents them from burning up once they re-enter Earth's atmosphere.
Technical ceramics created from zirconium dioxide are responsible for revolutionary knives that can hold an edge far longer than steel ones. Some other technical ceramics, comprised of boron carbide or silicon carbide, are extremely strong and lightweight. They can be found both in bulletproof vests intended to block large-caliber rifle rounds and as armor in the cockpits of specific military airplanes.
The production of ceramics has been invaluable to technologies of the last three decades. As opposed to steel bearings, ceramic ball bearings formulated from silicon nitride have three times the the life span. Due to the increased hardness, ceramics allow for less deformation under high strain. Additionally, it is more chemically resistant, won't corrode, and is considerably more heat-resistant than its steel alternative. The biggest pitfall with ceramic ball bearings is the higher cost as compared to the less expensive stainless steel.
That said, continuing with ceramic machining has the potential to be a catalyst for more fuel-efficient automobiles. Toyota looked at ceramic internal-combustion engines in the 1980s, and discovered that such engines were able to run at over 6000 degrees Fahrenheit without necessitating a cooling system and would be exceptionally economical. Unfortunately, they never went beyond experimentation as the technology was not feasible back then.
More recent developments in technical ceramics have taken place within the medical field. Ceramics have been used to synthesize hydroxyapatite, which is the primary mineral component of human bone. Experiments with implantation have demonstrated no attempt by the human body to reject these orthopedic implants. Sadly, these ceramics are not yet dense enough to work by themselves. As a result they are most typically applied as coatings on metal orthopedic implants, or as bone fillers. Nevertheless, scientists are working hard to create durable nano-crystalline hydroxyapatite ceramic products dense enough to stand up to the pressures to which human teeth and bones are subjected to.
Thus, sooner than you think, you could be using ceramic bones or teeth as frequently as you drink out of ceramic coffee mugs or eat off of ceramic plates.