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It is our great pleasure as Guest Editors of the journal ‘‘Rare Metals’’ to present the special issue on ‘‘Advanced Structural Ceramics Technology & Characteristics.’’ It provides the most recent research developments in advanced structural ceramics technology and characteristics and their applications in the potential industrial application. During the twenty-first century and the following decade, industrial ceramics have made significant contributions to various fields, including electronics, communications, transports, aeronautics, astronautics, environment, and energy. Many of these new ceramics products have made tremendous contributions to our society. It may not be an exaggeration to say that ceramic products in fact enhance the quality of our daily lives. Over the years, China has spawned many world-class-level ceramics manufactures that have provided many highly functional, high-quality ceramic products and exported them worldwide. This would not have been possible without the fundamental and important research contributions from universities as well as by industries utilizing continuous product improvements resulting from advanced structural ceramics technology and characteristics. This special issue is a collection of advanced structural ceramics technology and characteristics that have played active roles in various fields of industry used in the current society. In addition, we have included different original researches or important reviews in the issue. There is probably not a single issue that has categorized ceramics to play in each field and realizes how ceramics continue to play important roles in improving the quality of our lives. Even at this very moment, many scientists in universities or engineers in industry are working hard to develop new and innovative products. In this special issue, we invite worldrenowned experts in advanced structural ceramics technology and characteristics fields focusing on different specific aspects to report their interpretations on past progress and perspectives on future development. The main contents in this issue are as follows: High thermal conductivity silicon nitride ceramic substrates are indispensable components for next-generation high-powder electronic device, which possess excellent mechanical properties while maintaining high thermal conductivity, compared with other substrate materials. A review by Xie et al. [1] gives an overview on recent developments in preparing high thermal conductivity silicon nitride ceramics. Thermal/environmental barrier coatings (T/EBCs) play important roles in jet and/or gas turbine engines to protect the Ni-based superalloys and/or ceramic matrix composite substrates from the high-temperature airflow damage. Plasma spray–physical vapor deposition (PS–PVD) is a unique processing technology and enables highly tailorable functional film and coating with various rare metal elements. PS–PVD technology, which has broad application prospects in the fields of thermal barrier coatings, environmental barrier coatings, oxygen permeable films, electrode film, etc., was summarized by Yang et al. [2]. And the progress on the fabrication techniques and mechanical/ thermal properties of thermal/environmental barrier coatings, together with the anti-corrosion performance of these rare earth-based T/EBCs under a condition of molten salts or CMAS, are summarized by Yang et al. [3]. J. Feng* Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, China e-mail: [email protected]