Crystals are the unacknowledged pillars of the world of modern technology. Today's technological developments depend critically on the availability of suitable single crystals, whether for lasers, semiconductors, magnetic devices, optical devices, superconductors or telecommunication. In spite of great technological advances in recent years, we are still at an early stage with respect to the growth of several important crystals such as diamond, silicon carbide, PZT and gallium nitride. This book covers all important aspects of crystal growth and growth techniques, together with relevant case...

This book is devoted to a nontraditional class of materials which are manufactured by the melt-blowing process - i.e. by extrusion of polymer melt followed by fiber stretching with a gas stream. For the first time extensive data on classical and modern modifications of this technology are generalized and a review is given of extrusion head dies and subsidiary equipment. The text examines the structure and main properties of melt-blown materials as conditioned by peculiarities of overheated polymer melt spraying in an oxidizing medium. Information is given about filtering mechanisms and the...

This book starts with an extended introductory treatise on the fundamentals before moving on to a detailed description of the new methods of purification of transition metals and rare earth metals.

One of the recently emerging techniques of fibrous materials production, melt blowing, consists of forming fibers from substances heated above their melting (crystalline) or glass transition (glass-like) point with further blowing by gas flow. The sprayed fibrous mass is then cooled to solidification either in a gas flow or upon deposition on the forming substrate. Realized from polymers and then ceramics, the melt blowing technique has enriched materials science, engineering, and all commodity products by novel types of fibrous materials and products made from them with a unique combination...

The potential of supercritical fluid methods is presented in a comprehensive way. On the basis of a careful discussion of physical and chemical principles, the application of this method in process technology is demonstrated.