When touring a paper mill, the visitor sees nothing but the chimney, conveyer belts, numerous vessels—from small to gigantic—connected by pipes, and slurry pumped from one area to another. However, a paper manufacturing factory’s myriad structures use ceramic materials, such as for the foundation, flooring, shades, tanks, and other machinery and equipment.¹ Increasingly, ceramic materials are being used to address the inherent corrosion problems associated with papermaking, which cause enormous operations challenges, especially with regard to excessive recycling of water and fibers.² Figure 1 shows the primary operations involved in paper manufacturing.

There is tremendous emphasis now on micromaterials and nanomaterials.³ However, little published research details materials engineered specifically for the paper industry. Even in the journals dedicated to pulp and paper, there are few publications on material structure, properties, or composition.