Mullite

Mullite is certainly one of the most important ceramic materials, although it occurs only rarely in natural rocks. Mullite is a main constituent of potteries, porcelains, sanitary ceramics, refractories and of structural clay products. Besides its importance for conventional ceramics, mullite is a strong candidate material for advanced structural and functional ceramics and for composites. Reasons for the importance of mullite are its outstanding properties: low thermal expansion, low thermal and electrical conductivities, excellent creep resistance and stability in harsh high temperature environments.
Besides its importance for ceramics, mullite has also attracted interest from mineralogists and chemists. This is due to the fact that mullite has a complex real crystal structure, the phase is able to incorporate big amounts of foreign atoms, and that there exists a whole family of mullite–type crystal structures related to actual mullite. The crystal chemistry of mullite opens a wide field of new material developments with specific properties.
This volume gives an overview on the recent knowledge of mullite, mullite ceramics, and mullite matrix composites. It was an important aim of the authors to bring together the expertise of crystallographers, chemists, material scientists and of engineers in order to achieve a better understanding and an improvement of the properties of mullite, but also to identify new application fields of these materials.
The book addresses materials scientists, solid state chemists and physicists, crystallographers and mineralogists alike.

Spis treści:
1. Crystal Chemistry of Mullite and Related Phases.
1.1 The Mullite–type Family of Crystal Structures (R. Fischer & H. Schneider).
1.2 The Real Structure of Mullite (S. Rahman & S. Freimann).
1.3 Foreign Cation Incorporation in Mullite (H. Schneider).
1.4 Mullite–type Gels and Glasses (M. Schmücker & amp; H. Schneider).
2. Basic Properties of Mullite.
2.1 Mechnical Properties of Mullite (H. Schneider).
2.2 Thermal Properties of Mullite (H. Schneider).
2.3 Miscellaneous Properties (H. Schneider).
2.4 Structure–controlled Formation and Decomposition of Mullite (H. Schneider & M. Schmücker).
2.5 Mullite–mullite Phase Transformations (H. Schneider & M. Schmücker).
2.6 Spectroscopy of Mullite and Compounds with Mullite–related Structures (K. MacKenzie).
3. Phase Equilibria and Stability of Mullite.
3.1 The AL2O3— SiO2 Phase Diagram (J. Pask & H. Schneider).
3.2 Influence of Environmental Conditions on the Stability of Mullite (H. Schneider).
3.3 Ternary X—AI2O3—SiO2 Phase–Equilibrium Diagrams (H. Schneider).
3.4 Multicomponent Systems (H. Schneider).
4. Mullite Synthesis and Processing.
4.1 Mullite Synthesis (S. Komarneni, et al.).
4.2 Processing of Mullite Ceramics (S. Komarneni & H. Schneider).
4.3 Mechnical Properties of Mullite Ceramics (K. Okada & H. Schneider).
4.4 Thermal Properties of Mullite Ceramics (K. Okada & H. Schneider).
4.5 Miscellaneous Properties of Mullite Ceramics (K. Okada & H. Schneider).
4.6 Application of Mullite Ceramics (K. Okada & H. Schneider).
5. Mullite Coatings.
5.1 Chemical Vapor–deposited Coatings (CVD Coatings) (S. Basu & V. Sarin).
5.2 Plasma– and Flame–sprayed Coatings (S. Basu & V. Sarin).
5.3 Deposition of Mullite Coatings by Miscellaneous Techniques (S. Basu & V. Sarin).
6. Mullite Fibers.
6.1 Mullite Whiskers (H. Schneider).
6.2 Sol–gel–derived Continuous Mullite Fibers (H. Schneider).
6.3 Continuous Melt–grown Mullite Fibers (H. Schneider).
6.4 Application of Mulite Fibers (H. Schneider).
7. Mullite Matrix Composites.
7.1 Whisker–reinforced Mullite Matrix Composites (H. Schneider).
7.2 Continuous Fiber–reinforced Mullite Matrix Composites (H. Schneider).
7.3 Platelet– and Particle–reinforced Mullite Matrix Composites (H. Schneider & K. Okada).
7.4 Metal–reinforced Mullite Matrix Composites (H. Schneider).
Index.

Nota biograficzna:
Hartmut Schneider is the head of the "Structural and Functional Ceramics" group at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Materials Research, Köln (Germany) and is a Professor of Applied Mineralogy at the University of Hannover (Germany). He has been working on different topics of high pressure mineralogy and on refractory and ceramic materials. He is renowned for his research work in crystal chemistry, ceramics and composites of mullite, an alumino silicate of the stoichiometric composition 3Al2O3·2SiO2. Professor Schneider has published over 200 scientific and technical papers. His list of awards includes the Japanese Government Research Award, the Lilienthal Award, and the Fellowship of the American Ceramic Society.

Okładka tylna:
Mullite is certainly one of the most important ceramic materials, although it occurs only rarely in natural rocks. Mullite is a main constituent of potteries, porcelains, sanitary ceramics, refractories and of structural clay products. Besides its importance for conventional ceramics, mullite is a strong candidate material for advanced structural and functional ceramics and for composites. Reasons for the importance of mullite are its outstanding properties: low thermal expansion, low thermal and electrical conductivities, excellent creep resistance and stability in harsh high temperature environments.
Besides its importance for ceramics, mullite has also attracted interest from mineralogists and chemists. This is due to the fact that mullite has a complex real crystal structure, the phase is able to incorporate big amounts of foreign atoms, and that there exists a whole family of mullite–type crystal structures related to actual mullite. The crystal chemistry of mullite opens a wide field of new material developments with specific properties.
This volume gives an overview on the recent knowledge of mullite, mullite ceramics, and mullite matrix composites. It was an important aim of the authors to bring together the expertise of crystallographers, chemists, material scientists and of engineers in order to achieve a better understanding and an improvement of the properties of mullite, but also to identify new application fields of these materials.
The book addresses materials scientists, solid state chemists and physicists, crystallographers and mineralogists alike.