Teaching high-temperature materials chemistry at university (IUPAC technical report)

Over the last four to five decades, high-temperature materials chemistry (HTMC) has become a flourishing area of scientific and applied research, spurred by both a growing demand for new inorganic materials (e.g., oxide and non-oxide modern multifunctional ceramics, intermetallics, and oxidation-resistant alloys) able to withstand extreme thermal and chemical environments and by the recognition that chemical and physical behavior at high temperatures differs from, and cannot be extrapolated from, behavior at temperatures near room temperature. Despite the important role played by HTMC in modern advanced technology and the fundamental differences in behavior encountered at high temperatures, HTMC topics are rarely covered in chemistry and materials science programs at the university level because of a lack of readily accessible resource material—no textbook exists specifically devoted to HTMC topics. IUPAC’s Inorganic Chemistry Division sponsored a project to address this gap, resulting in the present report. The report includes an introduction and seven sections covering historical background, chemical behavior of condensed-phase/gas-phase systems at high temperature, basic concepts of materials thermodynamics, experimental techniques, use of thermodynamic data and modeling, vaporization and decomposition processes, and gas–solid reactions. The ninth section covers more specific topics, primarily concerning applications of high-temperature materials and processes. Each recommended topic is accompanied by a bibliography of helpful references, a short introduction or explanation including the areas of application, and some relevant teaching suggestions. An extensive annotated resource bibliography is an Appendix to the report available as supplementary material.