Characterization Techniques of Glasses and Ceramics

This book covers a wide range of lectures given at the Short Summer Course cel­ ebrated at La Laguna University about the new trends in the modern character­ ization methods: chemical, microscopies, thermal, X-ray, resonance and nuclear methos for ceramics, glasses and related materials. This monograph deals with the most useful and modern methods for characterising the inorganic materials such as glasses and glass-ceramics, traditional and advanced. After a short chapter focused on determination of rare earths in ceramics and minerals, there are three chapters showing the fundamentals and main applications of most advanced microstructure techniques for investigating glasses and ceramics: new microscopies (STM, AFM) and electron microscopy methods such as CBED and HREM. Three more chapters are dedicated to the basis and wide applications of thermal methods, one focused on applications on zeolite materials. The XRD for texture analysis and recent advances in fluorescence methods are also considered in two chapters. Finally, the Mössbauer spectroscopy for the investigation of glasses and glass-ceramics and neutron diffraction for the same type of materials is widely treated.