A refractory object may include a zircon body that is intentionally doped with a dopant including an alkaline earth element and aluminum. The refractory object can have an improved creep deformation rate. In an embodiment, the refractory object can have a creep deformation rate of not greater than about 1.8 E-5 h.sup.−1 at a temperature of 1350° C. and a stress of 2 MPa. In another embodiment, the zircon body may include an amorphous phase including an alkaline earth metal element.

A dielectric composition includes a main phase and a Ca—Si—P—O segregation phase. The main phase includes a main component expressed by ABO.sub.3. “A” includes at least one selected from calcium and strontium. “B” includes at least one selected from zirconium, titanium, hafnium, and manganese. The Ca—Si—P—O segregation phase includes at least calcium, silicon, and phosphorus.

A sintered composite ceramic includes a lithium-garnet major phase; and a lithium dendrite growth inhibitor minor phase, such that the lithium dendrite growth inhibitor minor phase comprises lithium tungstate. A method includes sintering a metal oxide component and a garnet component at a temperature in a range of 750° C. to 1500° C. to form a sintered composite ceramic.

Disclosed are composite materials comprising a porous, carbonated, calcium silicate ceramic having a microstructure comprising interconnected open pores; where the calcium silicate surface defining the pores is partially or completely coated with an amorphous silica layer, and the silica coating comprises an overlayer of calcium carbonate crystals; where the silica coating and calcium carbonate overlayer form a network that interconnects throughout the ceramic microstructure, but do not completely occlude the pores. Also disclosed are methods of forming such composite materials.

The present disclosure relates to a dental cutting zirconia blank having high relative density for preparing a dental restoration. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a dental cutting zirconia blank which consists of a zirconia ceramics used for the cutting with the CAD/CAM system in the dental field, a semi-sinter zirconia blank (pre-sintered body) of which has high relative density, and which can provide a prosthesis device having high aesthetics after sintering. There is provided a dental cutting zirconia blank wherein the dental cutting zirconia blank has at least one layer consisting of zirconia powder containing 4 to 15 mol % of yttria or erbium oxide as a stabilizer, a relationship among pre-sintering density, final-sintering density and relative density satisfies the following relation:
54≤Relative density(%)={(Pre-sintering density)/(Perfect-sintering density)}×100≤70.

Methods of producing a ceramic article include heating the ceramic green body containing a quantity of one or more organic materials to extract only a fraction of the organic materials from the ceramic green body by exposing the ceramic green body to a process atmosphere which is heated to a hold temperature of from 225° C. to about 400° C. and has from 2% to 7% O.sub.2 by volume of the process atmosphere. The method further includes cooling the ceramic green body to a temperature of below 200° C., exposing the ceramic green body to a higher concentration of O.sub.2 than in the process atmosphere of the heating step, and firing the ceramic green body to form the ceramic article. Volatile extraction units for implementing the methods are also described.

The present application discloses a conductive high-strength diamond/amorphous carbon composite material and a preparation process thereof. The diamond/amorphous carbon composite material is composed of an amorphous carbon continuous phase and multiple separate diamond phases embedded in the amorphous carbon continuous phase, wherein the diamond phases exhibit an ordered sp3 hybrid state, and the amorphous carbon continuous phase exhibits a disordered sp2 hybrid state. The present application further discloses a process for preparing the above diamond/amorphous carbon composite material. The process comprises using sp3 carbon powder or glassy carbon as a raw material to obtain the above-mentioned material by sintering. The diamond/amorphous carbon composite material shows good electrical conductivity, good electrical discharge machining ability, good chemical stability and light weight, and has broad application prospects in aerospace, automobile industry and biomedical equipment.

A sintered body includes a crystal grain containing silicon nitride, and a grain boundary phase. If dielectric losses of the sintered body are measured while applying an alternating voltage to the sintered body and continuously changing a frequency of the alternating voltage from 50 Hz to 1 MHz, an average value ε.sub.A of dielectric losses of the sintered body in a frequency band from 800 kHz to 1 MHz and an average value ε.sub.B of dielectric losses of the sintered body in a frequency band from 100 Hz to 200 Hz satisfy an expression |ε.sub.A−ε.sub.B|≤0.1.

A light emitting device (1) is a light emitting device for use in a photodynamic therapy. The light emitting device includes: a solid-state light-emitting element (2) that emits primary light in which an energy density is 0.5 W/mm.sup.2 or more; and a wavelength converter (3) including a first phosphor (4) that emits first wavelength-converted light (7). The first wavelength-converted light has a light component across at least a whole of a wavelength range of 700 nm or more and less than 800 nm. Energy of fluorescence emitted from the wavelength converter is 100 mW or more. A medical device includes the light emitting device.

A method of selectively removing at least part of a first phase from a surface of a nanocomposite includes at least a first phase and a second phase, each phase having a respective threshold fluence under a given number of applied laser pulses for removal of the phase by laser ablation. The threshold fluence of the first phase is less than the threshold fluence of the second phase. The method includes irradiating the surface of the nanocomposite with a laser beam having a laser beam diameter, a laser pulse duration, and a laser pulse energy during the irradiation. The laser fluence during the irradiation is less than the threshold fluence of the second phase and greater than the threshold fluence of the first phase. The laser beam diameter is greater than an average grain size of the first phase at the surface of the nanocomposite.