of electrostatic attraction and or the use of a binder to adhere the particles together agglomerated particles are sometimes desirable for transport storage and processing including thermal spraying of the mixed materials to prevent settling and undesirable separation in addition the desired particle size can be achieved through agglomeration by agglomerating submicron through micron sized powder as used herein the term u201c binder u201d means any substance that will agglomerate the ceramic and metal powders standard binders are known in the art and include for example lacquers water based binders and solvent based binders examples of specific organic binders include but are not limited to vinyl polymers such as polyvinyl and vinyl copolymers for example polyvinyl chloride polyvinyl acetate polyvinyl alcohol polyvinyl formal polyvinyl butyral polyvinyl fluoride polyvinylidene chloride and polyvinylidene fluoride also included is polystyrene including polyparamethylstyrene butadiene styrene styrene acrylonitride and styrene maleic anhydride resins preferred are polyvinyl acetate and polyvinyl alcohol the binders used in the present invention do not go into the sprayed coating as they are burned off during thermal spraying thus the binders used in the present invention are not u201c fugitive u201d materials as that term is known in the art which are used to create porosity the compositions of the present invention can be agglomerated by using standard spray dry technology typically a binder is added to a mixture of the particles in a solvent for ceramic ceramic or ceramic metal mixtures.