A dielectric ceramic composition and a multilayer ceramic electronic component are provided, the dielectric ceramic composition includes a barium titanate base material main component and a subcomponent, a microstructure after sintering includes a first crystal grain including 3 or less domain boundaries and a second crystal grain including 4 or more domain boundaries, and an area ratio of the second crystal grain to the total crystal grains is 20% or less.

A fuel assembly for a nuclear reactor, a fuel rod of the fuel assembly, and a ceramic nuclear fuel pellet of the fuel rod are disclosed. The fuel pellet includes a first fissile material of UB.sub.2, The boron of the UB.sub.2 is enriched to have a concentration of the isotope .sup.11B that is higher than for natural B.

A method of producing polycrystalline Y.sub.3Ba.sub.5Cu.sub.8O.sub.y (Y-358) whereby powders of yttrium (III) oxide, a barium (II) salt, and copper (II) oxide are pelletized, calcined at 850 to 950° C. for 8 to 16 hours, ball milled under controlled conditions, pelletized again and sintered in an oxygen atmosphere at 900 to 1000° C. for up to 72 hours. The polycrystalline Y.sub.3Ba.sub.5Cu.sub.8O.sub.y thus produced is in the form of elongated crystals having an average length of 2 to 10 μm and an average width of 1 to 2 μm, and embedded with spherical nanoparticles of yttrium deficient Y.sub.3Ba.sub.5Cu.sub.8O.sub.y having an average diameter of 5 to 20 nm. The spherical nanoparticles are present as agglomerates having flower-like morphology with an average particles size of 30 to 60 nm. The ball milled polycrystalline Y.sub.3Ba.sub.5Cu.sub.8O.sub.y prepared under controlled conditions shows significant enhancement of superconducting and flux pinning properties.

A multilayer ceramic capacitor that includes a ceramic body including a stack of a plurality of dielectric layers and a plurality of first and second internal electrodes; and first and second external electrodes provided at each of both end faces of the ceramic body. Each of the plurality of dielectric layers contain Ba, Ti, P and Si. The plurality of dielectric layers include an outer dielectric layer located on an outermost side in the stacking direction; an inner dielectric layer located between the first and second internal electrodes; and a side margin portion in a region where the first and second internal electrodes do not exist. In at least one of the outer dielectric layer, the inner dielectric layer and the side margin portion, the P and the Si segregate in at least one of grain-boundary triple points of three ceramic particles.

A W.sub.18O.sub.49 peak is confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis of a sputtering surface and a cross section orthogonal to the sputtering surface, a ratio I.sub.S(103)/I.sub.S(010) of a diffraction intensity I.sub.S(103) of a (103) plane to a diffraction intensity I.sub.S(010) of a (010) plane of W.sub.18O.sub.49 of the sputtering surface is 0.57 or more, a ratio I.sub.C(103)/I.sub.C(010) of a diffraction intensity I.sub.C(103) of the (103) plane to a diffraction intensity I.sub.C(010) of the (010) plane of W.sub.18O.sub.49 of the cross section is 0.38 or less, and an area ratio of the W.sub.18O.sub.49 phase of a surface parallel to the sputtering surface is 37% or more.

A dielectric composition includes dielectric particles. At least one of the dielectric particles include a main phase and a secondary phase. The main phase has a main component of barium titanate. The secondary phase exists inside the main phase and has a higher barium content than the main phase.

A method of manufacturing a multilayer ceramic capacitor includes: forming a multilayer body by alternately stacking a green sheet and a conductive paste for forming an internal electrode layer, the green sheet being mainly composed of a ceramic material having a perovskite structure that includes Ca and Zr and is expressed by a general expression ABO.sub.3 and containing an alkali metal, the conductive paste being mainly composed of Cu, containing a ceramic co-material and no alkali metal; and baking the multilayer body to obtain a ceramic multilayer body.

A material including a body including B.sub.6O.sub.X can include lattice constant c of at most 12.318. X can be at least 0.85 and at most 1. In a particular embodiment, 0.90≤X≤1. In another particular embodiment, lattice constant a can be at least 5.383 and lattice constant c can be at most 12.318. In another particular embodiment, the body can consist essentially of B.sub.6O.sub.X.

A sintered composite ceramic includes: a lithium-garnet major phase; and a lithium-rich minor phase, such that the lithium-rich minor phase has Li.sub.xTiO.sub.(x+4)/2, with 0.66≤x≤4. The sintered composite ceramic may exhibit a relative density of at least 90% of a theoretical maximum density of the ceramic, an ionic conductivity of at least 0.35 mS.Math.cm.sup.−1, or a critical current density (CCD) of at least 1.0 mA.Math.cm.sup.−2.

A refractory article includes a body having a first portion defining at least a portion of a first exterior surface of the body, the first portion including a carbide, and further including a second portion defining at least a portion of a second exterior surface of the body opposite the first exterior surface, the second portion including an oxide, and a thermal conductivity difference (ΔTC) of at least 10 W/mK between the first exterior surface and the second exterior surface, and an average Shell Temperature of not greater than 400° C.