Nature of Clay

The classical definition of ceramics uses the word “clay” to describe ceramics. Prior to the 1940s most ceramic products used clay as part of their composition. Clay was a necessary ingredient because it served as the forming agent that allowed ceramic powders to be shaped from a dry to a slurry condition. It was not until the clay structure was better understood that substitutions could be made to perform the same role as clay in the ceramic composition [3].