A method of making a polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN), material is provided. The matrix precursor powder comprises an aluminium compound. The method comprises mixing matrix precursor powder comprising particles having an average particle size no greater than 250 nm, with between 30 and 40 volume percent of cubic boron nitride (cBN) particles having an average particle size of at least 4 μm, and then spark plasma sintering the mixed particles. The spark plasma sintering occurs at a pressure of at least 500 MPa, a temperature of no less than 1050° C. and no more than 1500° C. and a time of no less than 1 minute and no more than 3 minutes.

A brake component is disclosed. In various embodiments, the brake component includes a ceramic matrix composite (CMC) structure including a plurality of nominally dense plies, interleaved with a plurality of interlayers, wherein the plurality of nominally dense plies and the plurality of interlayers are bonded by at least one of a Field Assisted Sintering Technique (FAST), a Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) process, or a localized heating process. In various embodiments, the brake component is a rotor disk or a stator disk.

A sintered yttrium oxide body having a total impurity level of 40 ppm or less, a density of not less than 4.93 g/cm3, wherein the sintered yttrium oxide body has at least one surface comprising at least one pore, wherein no pore is larger than 5 μm in diameter. A process for making the sintered yttrium oxide body is also disclosed.

The invention relates to a product and a process for fabricating a 1D, 2D, or 3D layered micro or nano component that comprises providing an electrode having a micro-scale or nano-scale tip, and applying electric current to the electrode tip in the presence of a micro-scale or nano-scale powder.

Hafnium carbide powder for plasma electrodes is represented by a chemical formula HfC.sub.x (where x=0.5 to 1.0). The content of carbon particles contained as impurities in the hafnium carbide powder is less than or equal to 0.03% by mass. The hafnium carbide powder preferably has an average particle size of 0.5 to 2 μm. To produce the hafnium carbide powder, a pellet made from mixed powder of hafnium oxide and carbon is first placed in a second crucible made of silicon carbide. Then, the hafnium carbide powder is formed by heating the second crucible at 1800 to 2000° C. with the second crucible arranged in a first crucible made of carbon.

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.

A method of forming tungsten tetraboride, by combining tungsten and boron in a molar ratio of from about 1:6 to about 1:12, respectively, and firing the combined tungsten and boron in the hexagonal boron nitride crucible at a temperature of from about 1600 C to about 2000 C, to form tungsten tetraboride.

A method allows for firm joining of power module components even if a joining area is large. The method includes: forming an oxygen ion conductor layer on a surface of one of a first member to be joined containing metal and a second member to be joined containing ceramic and a metal plating layer on a surface of the other; arranging them so that they are in contact with each other; connecting one of the first member to be joined and the second member to be joined on which the metal plating layer is provided to the negative electrode side of the voltage application device and the other to the positive electrode side; and applying a voltage between the first member to be joined and the second member to be joined to join them together.

An electro-conductive B.sub.4C—TiB.sub.2 has a microstructure in which large B.sub.4C grains are coated by small TiB.sub.2 grains. The composite ceramic includes 10˜30% by volume of TiB.sub.2. A method for preparing the electro-conductive B.sub.4C—TiB.sub.2 composite ceramic includes: (1) weighing B.sub.4C, TiC, and amorphous B powder; (2) mixing evenly and drying thoroughly the powders; and (3) loading the mixed powder into a graphite mold; and placing the graphite mold in a spark plasma sintering furnace for sintering under vacuum, where the sintering is performed at 2000° C. and 50 MPa for 5˜20 min.

A method of manufacturing a CMC structure includes infiltrating a porous substrate with a composite material and performing a first densification on the infiltrated porous substrate, forming a first densified porous substrate, wherein the first densification includes techniques selected from the group of techniques comprising photonic curing, photonic sintering, pulsed thermal heating, or combinations thereof.