Mucchi Editore

Recently, in the frame of the International Summer Courses that now are being common in summer season at the Spanish universities, the La Lagune University, Tenerife, Canary Islands has celebrated a five days course focused on: “Synthesis and industrial applications of glass-ceramics”. Thirthy hours lectures were given by ten well-known professors and researchers that are usually investigating the nucleation and crystallization of glasses, as well as the characterization of final glass-ceramics. This Summer Course was organized in four thematic groups: – Raw Materilas: Nature, composition and their influence in the vitrification-controlled crystallization of phases. – Glass-Ceramic Process: Phase equilibria, nucleating agents, nucleation process. – Properties: Chemical, physical and technological, as well as microstructure characterization. – Industrial applications, viz – Conventional glass-ceramics from pure raw materials. Domestic uses. – Petrurgical glass-ceramics, mainly from basalts. – Advanced glass-ceramics for: bioimplants, electronics, composite glass-ceramics… In order to give more homogeneity for readers, this monograph has been organized in four different chapters:
1) Fundamentals
2) Processing and microstructure characterization
3) Applications and special uses
4) New and advanced glass-ceramics
5) Appendix: including a short paper in local raw material uses for glass-ceramics
This monograph is directed not only to undergraduate (high courses) and graduate students, but also to the researchers, professors and industrials interested in Science and Technology of Materials.