Ceramic materials. Processes, properties and application / Керамические материалы. Изготовление, свойства и применение

It would be a misstatement to claim that this title provides an “exhaustiveness” coverage of the world of ceramic materials, if only because this subject covers such a wide area that only one book would not be able to do it justice – even if it is supplemented by a book dedicated to ceramic composites and by several volumes devoted to the cousins of ceramics, namely glasses, cements and concretes, and geomaterials. However, we believe that this problem can also be an advantage,because it resulted in the production of a concise work that provides the essence of the subject. In fact, initially this book was written for non-ceramists – students and engineers – interested in an introduction to the knowledge of this vast family of materials, in other words, for readers whose interests are not limited only to ceramics but for those who are aware that ceramics can act as a support (often) or as a rival (sometimes) to other materials. 

The necessity of concision has led to some restrictions. We have eliminated recapitulations, for example, thermodynamics or crystallography; we have not discussed materials that seemed far from the interests of our potential readers, such as monocrystals (jewelry and technical uses), ceramics for chemistry (catalysis and filtration), or superconductive oxides; finally, we have not dealt with “black ceramics” (graphite and carbons) or with deposits of diamond or hard carbon. <...>