Ceramics

02/15/26

“What material properties make ceramics special?”

We use ceramics in our everyday life, whether it’s the mug for our morning coffee, the bricks in the buildings we inhabit, or the fillings in our teeth. But what material properties make them so special? Well, ceramics are materials made up of nonmetallic, inorganic chemical compounds strung together by ionic and/or covalent bonding. This gives them high compressive strength, hardness, melting points, and wear resistance, with the drawbacks of high brittleness, low toughness, and vulnerability to cracks. Ceramics are also corrosion-resistant and thermally stable, making them well-suited for chemically and thermodynamically intense applications.