Chemistry Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for scientists, academics, teachers, and students in the field of chemistry. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I was wondering if there is a book that has a broad coverage of inorganic materials, like concrete, glass, and steel.
Ideally the book would go into how each material is manufactured and some of the basic chemistry behind it.
I have a background in physics and some undergraduate level chemistry.
Thank you.
There are two classical sources which are very thorough and authoritative and describe exactly what you want. They are readable by an undergraduate. A trip to the library is needed. No.1 is Kirk Other Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology and the no. 2 is Ulmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry. You can find entries like glass, cement, steel and literally tons of more stuff than you will ever need.
You can search the contents online. Google these titles.
Büchel, K. H.; Moretto, H.-H.; Werner, D. Industrial Inorganic Chemistry, 2nd edition; Wiley-VCH.
With 642 pages, this book is not as big as an entire encyclopedia. It covers the chemistry of the manufacturing processes of important inorganic materials, for example, metals (but surprisingly not steel), fertilizers, construction materials (including concrete), pigments, and glass.
