A valuable reference for those interested in innovative approaches to the synthesis and processing of ceramics and composites, as well as their properties. Twenty-two papers describing the latest developments in the areas of combustion synthesis, microwave processing, reaction forming, polymer processing, chemical vapor deposition, electrophoresis, spark plasma sintering, mechanical amorphization, thin films, composites, and more are included in this volume.

A valuable reference for those interested in innovative approaches to the synthesis and processing of ceramics and composites, as well as their properties. Twenty-two papers describing the latest developments in the areas of combustion synthesis, microwave processing, reaction forming, polymer processing, chemical vapor deposition, electrophoresis, spark plasma sintering, mechanical amorphization, thin films, composites, and more are included in this volume.

Preface.MICROWAVE PROCESSING.Continuous Microwave-Driven Polyol Process for Synthesizing Ytterbium-Doped Yttria Powder (M. A. Imam, A. W. Fliflet, K. L. Siebach, A. David, R. W. Bruce, S. B. Qadri, C. R. Feng and S. H. Gold).Microwave Irradiation-Assisted Method for the Rapid Synthesis of Fine Particles of α-Al2O3and α-(Al1-xCrx)2O3and Their Coatings on Si(100) (Anshita Gairola, A. M. Umarji, and S. A. Shivashankar).CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION.Synthesis and Characterization of Si/Si2N20/Si3N4 Composites from Solid-Gas Precursor System Via CVD (J. C. Flores-Garcia, A. L. Leal-Cruz, and M. I. Pech-Canul).Effect of Flow Rate, Nitrogen Precursor and Diluent on Si2N2ODeposition by HYSYCVD (A. L. Leal-Cruz, M. I. Pech-Canul, E. Lara-Curzio, R. M. Trejo, and R. Peascoe).COMBUSTION SYNTHESIS.MgAl2O4/SiC Composite Ceramic Material Produced by Combustion Synthesis (Podbolotov Kirill Borisovich and Diatlova Evgenija Mihajlovna).Finite Element Analysis of Self-Propagating High-Temperature Synthesis of Strontium-Doped Lanthanum Manganate (Sidney Lin and Jiri Selig).REACTION FORMING AND POLYMER PROCESSING.Comparison of Bulk and Nanoscale Properties of Polymer Precursor Derived Silicon Carbide with Sintered Silicon Carbide (Arif Rahman, Suraj C. Zunjarra, and R. P. Singh).Process Design and Production of Boron Trichloride from Native Boron Carbide in Lab-Scale (D. Agaogullari and I. Duman).SINTERING AND HOT PRESSING.Spark Plasma Sintered Alumina-Zirconia Nano-Composites by Addition of Hydroxyapatite (S. F. Li, H. Izui, M. Okano, W. H. Zhang, and T. Watanabe).Comparison of Slip Cast to Hot Pressed Boron Carbide (T. Sano, E.S.C. Chin, B. Paliwal, and M. W. Chen).AMORPHOUS CERAMICS.Mechanically Driven Amorphization and Bulk Nanocrystalline Synthesis of Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics (H. Kimura).Preparation and Characterization of Fused Silica Based Ceramic Cores Used in Superalloy Casting (M. Arin, S. Sevik, and A. B. Kayihan).COATINGS AND FILMS.Photon Effects in Ultra-Thin Oxide Films: Synthesis and Functional Properties (S. Ramanathan, M. Tsuchiya, C. L. Chang, and C. Ko).Faradayic Process for Electrophoretic Deposition of Thermal Barrier Coatings for Use in Gas Turbine Engines (Joseph Kell and Heather McCrabb).A Novel Method to Spray Tungsten Carbide Using Low Pressure Cold Spray Technology (J. Wang and J. Villafuerte).COMPOSITES.Foreign Object Damage Versus Static Indentation Damage in an Oxide/Oxide Ceramic Matrix Composite (Sung R. Choi, Donald J. Alexander, and David C. Faucett).Distinguished Functions Making the Best Use of the Unique Composite Structures (Toshihiro Ishikawa).Effects of Environment on Creep Behavior of NEXTEL 720/ Alumina-Mullite Ceramic Composite at 1200 °C (C. L Genelin and M. B. Ruggles-Wrenn).Performance of Composite Materials in Corrosive Conditions: Evaluation of Adhesion Loss in Polymers Via Cathodic Disbondment and a Newly Developed NDE Technique (Davion Hill, Colin Scott, Ayca Ertekin, and Narasi Sridhar).Effect of Variations in Process Shear on the Mixedness of an Alumina-Titania System (C. August, M. Jitianu, and R. Haber).MODELING.Modeling of the Pressure in 1-D Green Ceramic Bodies during Depressurization from Conditions of Supercritical Extraction of Binder (Kumar Krishnamurthy and Stephen J. Lombardo).Models of the Strength of Green Ceramic Bodies as a Function of Binder Content and Temperature (Stephen J. Lombardo and Rajiv Sachanandani).Finite Element Modeling of Steel Wire Drawing through Dies Based on Encapsulated Hard Particles (Daniel J. Cunningham, Erik M. Byrne, Ivi Smid, John M. Keane).Author Index.