Stuijts memorial lecture 1997: Ceramic science and technology facing changing paradigms

In the foreseeable future the main matter of concern for applied research into ceramic materials will be, on the one hand, the need to ensure the sustainable development by a reduction in the consumption of nonrenewable energy and natural resources and, on the other, the challenge associated with the tendency of the industry to move towards a sales-orientated and ‘just-in-time’ production of materials. The former concern should foster a growing utilisation of ceramic materials because these are, to an overwhelming majority, constituted by light elements that are abundant in the earth's crust and air. This endeavour emphasises a perfectioning of existing ceramic systems and their tailoring to a host of advanced applications by improving the properties, by using new or improved technologies, and by ‘discovering’ new properties of known compounds. This trend is illustrated in the paper by considering the applications of successively developed types of SiC-based materials and by the perspectives opened by newly revealed properties of earlier known materials, like Ti 3SiC 2. In addition to providing improved properties, newly developed ceramic technologies comply to an increasing degree with requirements for sustainable development and for ‘just-in-time’ production. To illustrate this tendency, the RBAO (reaction bonded aluminium oxide) method and several variants of combustion methods are reviewed in the paper.