The invention relates to a refractory ceramic batch for the production of an unformed refractory ceramic batch, the use of a batch of this kind for lining metallurgical melting vessels and also a metallurgical melting vessel which is lined with an unformed refractory ceramic product based on a batch of this kind.

The invention relates to a copper-ceramic composite comprising: a ceramic substrate; and a copper or copper alloy coating on the ceramic substrate, the copper or copper alloy having grain sizes of 10 m to 300 m.

The invention relates to a copper-ceramic composite, comprising a ceramic substrate, which contains aluminum oxide, a coating on the ceramic substrate made of copper or a copper alloy, wherein the aluminum oxide has an average grain form factor R.sub.a(Al.sub.2O.sub.3), determined as an arithmetic average value from the form factors of the grains of the aluminum oxide, the copper or the copper alloy has an average grain form factor R.sub.a(Cu), determined as an arithmetic average of the form factors of the grains of the copper or copper alloy, and the average grain form factors of the aluminum oxide and copper or copper alloy meet the following condition: 0.5R.sub.a(Al.sub.2O.sub.3)/R.sub.a(Cu)2.0.

A ceramic electronic component includes: a ceramic body that includes internal electrodes; and an external electrode that includes a plurality of crystal particles containing Ba, Zn, Si, and O, the external electrode being formed on a surface of the ceramic body and connected to the internal electrodes.

A refractory article can include a body including a content of alumina of at least 60 wt %, a content of silica of not greater than 20 wt %, a content of zirconia of not greater than 20 wt % for a total weight of the body. In a particular embodiment, the body includes a third phase including composite grains including mullite and zirconia. The third phase including the composite grains can be present within a range including at least 1 wt % and not greater than 35 wt % for a total weight of the body.

Embodiments disclosed herein are related to polycrystalline textured materials exhibiting heterogeneous templated grain growth, methods of forming such materials, and related systems. An example of a method of forming a polycrystalline textured material exhibiting heterogeneous templated grain growth includes providing a plurality of seeds. The method also includes aligning at least some of the plurality of seeds (e.g., single-crystal seeds) so that a selected crystallographic orientation of at least some of the plurality of seeds are substantially aligned with each other. Additionally, the method includes positioning the plurality of seeds in a powder matrix. The method then includes pressing the plurality of seeds and the powdered matrix to form a green body. Further, the method includes sintering the green body at a temperature that is sufficient to grow a plurality of grains from corresponding ones of the plurality of seeds to form the polycrystalline textured material.

In a monolithic refractory, in terms of a proportion in 100 mass % of a refractory raw material having a grain size of 8 mm or smaller, an amount of Ca.sub.XSr.sup.1XAl.sub.2O.sub.4 (where, 0X0.5) is 0.5 mass % or more and 10 mass % or less, and a polyvalent metal salt of oxycarboxylic acid is 0.05 mass % or more and 1.0 mass % or less.

A piezoelectric composition comprises a plurality of crystal particles, wherein the piezoelectric composition includes bismuth, iron, barium, titanium, and oxygen; the crystal particles include a core and a shell covering the core; the average value of the contents of bismuth in the cores is expressed as C.sub.CORE % by mass, the average value of the contents of bismuth in the shells is expressed as C.sub.SHELL % by mass, and the C.sub.CORE is lower than the C.sub.SHELL; and the number of all the particles comprised in the piezoelectric composition is expressed as N, the number of the crystal particles including the core and the shell is expressed as n, and n/N is 0.10 to 1.00.

A multilayer ceramic capacitor includes: a multilayer structure in which each of a plurality of ceramic dielectric layers and each of a plurality of internal electrode layers are alternately stacked, wherein: (a current value at 10 V/?m when a direct voltage is applied to the plurality of the ceramic dielectric layers at 125 degrees C.)/(a current value at 10 V/?m when a direct voltage is applied to the plurality of the ceramic dielectric layers at 85 degrees C.) is more than 5 and less than 20; and a donor element concentration in the plurality of ceramic dielectric layers is 0.05 atm % or more and 0.3 atm % or less.

A dielectric composition, a dielectric element, an electronic component and a laminated electronic component are disclosed. In an embodiment the dielectric composition includes particles having a perovskite crystal structure including at least Bi, Na, Sr and Ti, wherein at least some of the particles have a core-shell structure including a core portion and a shell portion, and wherein the content of Bi present in the core portion is no greater than 0.83 times the content of Bi present in the shell portion.