Last week, readers were most interested in an announcement regarding the acquisition of Samsung Corning Precision Materials.

An internal structural defect in a ceramic chip capacitor becomes activated when it expands to create an electrical leakage path between two adjacent electrode layers.

Nature builds flawless diamonds, sapphires and other gems. Now a Northwestern University research team is reportedly the first to build near-perfect single crystals out of nanoparticles and DNA, using the same structure favored by nature.

Optical fibers carry data in the form of pulses of light over distances of thousands of miles at amazing speeds.

News regarding combat helmets from Ceradyne drew the most interest last week.

An announcement from Ceramic Fuel Cells regarding the sale of its UK powder assets drew the most interest last week.

According to a recent report from BCC Research, the global market value of the abrasive grains segment of the worldwide abrasives market was $8.9 billion in 2011.

 Welcome to our annual Materials Handbook issue! The handbook is organized with a definition/description for each material (listed alphabetically), followed by the names of suppliers that provide the material.