Set forth herein are garnet material compositions, e.g., lithium-stuffed garnets and lithium-stuffed garnets doped with alumina, which are suitable for use as electrolytes and catholytes in solid state battery applications. Also set forth herein are lithium-stuffed garnet thin films having fine grains therein. Disclosed herein are novel and inventive methods of making and using lithium-stuffed garnets as catholytes, electrolytes and/or anolytes for all solid state lithium rechargeable batteries. Also disclosed herein are novel electrochemical devices which incorporate these garnet catholytes, electrolytes and/or anolytes. Also set forth herein are methods for preparing novel structures, including dense thin (<50 um) free standing membranes of an ionically conducting material for use as a catholyte, electrolyte, and, or, anolyte, in an electrochemical device, a battery component (positive or negative electrode materials), or a complete solid state electrochemical energy storage device. Also, the methods set forth herein disclose novel sintering techniques, e.g., for heating and/or field assisted (FAST) sintering, for solid state energy storage devices and the components thereof.

An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for manufacturing a transparent ceramic material. The method comprises providing a compact comprising a metal oxide and, during sintering, exposing the compact to a vapor comprising one of or both fluorine ions and lithium ions to form a transparent ceramic material comprising at least 90% of a theoretical transparency.

The present disclosure provides a boron carbide composite material having a novel composition with excellent mechanical properties, and a production method therefor. The boron carbide composite material has high fracture toughness and may be applied as a lightweight bulletproof ceramic material. The boron carbide composite material is a boron carbide/silicon carbide/titanium boride/graphite (B.sub.4C—SiC—TiB.sub.2—C) composite material. The composite material may overcome a technical limitation on increasing the fracture toughness of the boron carbide composite material, and may be produced as a high-density boron carbide composite material using a reactive hot-pressing sintering process at a relatively low temperature. The boron carbide composite material having excellent mechanical properties may be applied to general industrial wear-resistant parts and nuclear-power-related industrial parts, and particularly, may be actively used as a lightweight bulletproof material for personal use and for military aircraft including helicopters.

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 manufacturing method of a sintered body is a manufacturing method of the sintered body which increases a temperature while applying an electric field to a ceramic compact. This method controls a current which flows to the ceramic compact so that a sintering rate becomes constant.

Compositions comprising preceramic resins and fumed alumina are described. The compositions can also include fillers, such as silicon carbide whiskers or zirconium diboride particles. The compositions can be used as three-dimensional printable inks for preparing ceramic composites, e.g., composites having complex geometry. Inclusion of fumed alumina as a rheology modifier in the composition can provide improved printing properties for the inks compared to preceramic resin inks that do not include fumed alumina.

The present invention aims to provide a scintillator which has a short fluorescence decay time, whose fluorescence intensity after a period of time following radiation irradiation is low, and which shows largely improved light-transmittance. A scintillator represented by the following General Formula (1), the scintillator including Zr, having a Zr content of not less than 1500 ppm by mass therein, and being a block of a sintered body. Q.sub.xM.sub.yO.sub.3z:A . . . (1) (wherein in General Formula (1), Q includes at least one or more kinds of divalent metallic elements; M includes at least Hf; and x, y, and z independently satisfy 0.5≤x≤1.5, 0.5≤y≤1.5, and 0.7≤z≤1.5, respectively).

The present invention relates to a two-stage sintering method for preparing a porous biphasic calcium phosphate ceramic from calcium-containing biological waste, wherein hydroxyapatite prepared from calcium-containing waste is mixed with a foaming agent to prepare a bone graft material having medicinal use through two-stage sintering.

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.

Disclosed herein is a dual density disc comprising a dense outer tube comprising a metal oxide having a purity of greater than 92%; and a porous core comprising a metal oxide of a lower density than a density of the dense outer tube; wherein the porous core has a metal oxide purity of greater than 99%; where the dense outer tube has an inner tapered surface.