This book deals with the properties and behavior of carbon at high temperatures. It presents new methods and new ways to obtain the liquid phase of carbon. Melting of graphite and the properties of liquid carbon are presented under stationary heat and pulse methods. Metal like properties of molten graphite at high initial density are indicated. A new possible transition of liquid carbon from metal to nonmetal behavior much above the melting point is mentioned. Methodical questions of pulse heating, in particular the role of pinch-pressure in receiving a liquid state of carbon, are discussed. The reader finds evidence about the necessity of applying high pressure (higher than 100 bar) to melt graphite (melting temperature 4800±100 K). The reader can verify the advantage of volume pulse electrical heating before surface laser heating to study the physical properties of carbon, including enthalpy, heat capacity, electrical resistivity and temperature. The advantages of fast heating of graphite by pulsed electric current during a few microseconds are shown. The data obtained for the heat capacity of liquid carbon under constant pressure and constant volume were used to estimate the behavior at temperatures much higher 5000 K.

This exhaustive work in three volumes with featuring cross-reference system provides a thorough overview of ultra-high temperature materials – from elements and chemical compounds to alloys and composites. Topics included are physical (crystallographic, thermodynamic, thermo-physical, electrical, optical, physico-mechanical, nuclear) and chemical (solid-state diffusion, interaction with chemical elements and compounds, interaction with gases, vapours and aqueous solutions) properties of the individual physico-chemical phases and multi-phase materials with melting (or sublimation) points over or about 2500 °C. The first volume focuses on carbon (graphite/graphene) and refractory metals (W, Re, Os, Ta, Mo, Nb, Ir). The second and third volumes are dedicated solely to refractory (ceramic) compounds (oxides, nitrides, carbides, borides, silicides) and to the complex materials – refractory alloys, carbon and ceramic composites, respectively. It will be of interest to researchers, engineers, postgraduate, graduate and undergraduate students in various disciplines alike. The reader is provided with the full qualitative and quantitative assessment for the materials, which could be applied in various engineering devices and environmental conditions at ultra-high temperatures, on the basis of the latest updates in the field of physics, chemistry, materials science, nanotechnology and engineering.

The purpose of this book is to bring together current scientific understanding of wetting behaviour that has been gained from theoretical models and quantitative experimental observations. The materials considered are liquid metals or inorganic glasses in contact with solid metals or ceramics at temperatures of 200-2000oC. Wetting has been a significant scientific concern for the last two centuries and reference will be made to classical work by nineteenth century scientists such as Dupré, Laplace and Young that was validated by observations of the behaviour of chemically inert ambient temperature systems.In attempting to achieve the aims of the book, the text has been divided into ten Chapters that can be grouped into four stages of presentation. The first stage comprises two Chapters that review established and newly developed models for their relevance to wetting behaviour at high temperatures, including recent models that encompass the role of chemical reactions at the solid/liquid interfaces. Attention is paid both to equilibrium wetting behaviour (Chapter 1) and to the factors that control the approach to equilibrium (Chapter 2). Then follow Chapters concerned with experimental techniques for scientific measurement of the extent of wetting (Chapter 3) and with the surface energy data for both metals and non-metals that are essential for quantitative interpretation of wetting behaviour (Chapter 4). Descriptions of experimentally determined and quantified wetting behaviour are presented and interpreted in the third part comprising five Chapters dealing with the characteristics of metal/metal, metal/oxide, metal/non-oxide, metal/carbon and molten glass/solid systems. The book concludes with a Chapter commenting on the role of wetting behaviour in joining similar and dissimilar materials by liquid route techniques.