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experiments is being reduced at least by three to four orders of magnitude, which
will in turn, make the technique more economic. With an ever-increasing demand
for composite nanostructures, the hydrothermal technique offers a unique method
for coating of various compounds on metals, polymers, and ceramics as well as for
the fabrication of powders or bulk ceramic bodies. It has now emerged as a front-
line technology for the processing of advanced materials for nanotechnology. On
the whole, hydrothermal technology in the twenty-first century has altogether
offered a new perspective which is illustrated in
Figure 10.1
. It links all the impor-
tant technologies like geotechnology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and
advanced materials technology. Thus, it is clear that the hydrothermal processing
of advanced materials is a highly interdisciplinary subject, and the technique is
popularly used by physicists, chemists, ceramists, hydrometallurgists, materials
scientists, engineers, biologists, geologists, technologists, and so on.
10.2 Current Trends in Hydrothermal Technology
There is a great difference between the hydrothermal research carried out during
the previous century and the early twenty-first century. During mid-twentieth cen-
tury, hydrothermal technology—which was in its peak—was mainly focusing on
the high-temperature and high-pressure regime of materials processing because of
the lack of knowledge on the hydrothermal chemistry of the medium, solubility of
several compounds, and also on the selection of an appropriate solvent. The First
International Hydrothermal Reactions Symposium (1982) held at the Tokyo
Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan, brought together specialists from interdisci-
plinary branches of science. Since then, the knowledge on the physical chemistry,
PVT relationship in the hydrothermal systems greatly improved, which helped in
Figure 10.1 Hydrothermal
technology in the twenty-first
century.
Advanced materials
technology
Hydrothermal
technology
Biotechnology
