A toughened ceramic material includes at least one boride and a refractory metal, or at least two borides, one carbide at least, and a refractory metal. The toughened ceramic material is by means of heating and smelting the above materials. During the process of preparing the toughened ceramic material by heating and smelting, substantially all the refractory metal reacts with the boride and/or the carbide to form a toughened ceramic material with a high toughness and substantially without metallic cemented phase.

The invention concerns a method for surface treatment of a ceramic material in powder form, wherein said method comprising the step of providing a powder formed of a plurality of particles of the ceramic material to be treated, and wherein said ceramic powder particles are subjected to an ion implantation process by directing towards an external surface of said particles a beam of singly or multiply charged ions produced by a charge of singly or multiply charged ions, for example of the electron cyclotron resonance ECR type, wherein said particles have a generally polyhedral shape.

The invention also concerns a material in powder form, formed of a plurality of particles having a ceramic external layer and a ceramic core, wherein said particles have a generally polyhedral shape.

The invention presents a near-infrared photothermal coupling curing non-oxide ceramic slurry, along with its preparation method and application. The ceramic slurry consists of various raw materials, with weight fractions as follows: non-oxide ceramic powder (40?90 parts), photosensitive resin (0.5?20 parts), photosensitive monomer (1?40 parts), photoinitiator (0.25?4 parts), thermal initiator (0.25?4 parts), additive (0.75?5 parts), and up-conversion luminescent material (0.5?4 parts). The non-oxide ceramic powders can include Si.sub.3N.sub.4, TiN, BN, AlN, SiC, WC, TiC, ZrC, TiB.sub.2, and ZrB.sub.2. By combining the photochemical and photothermal dual curing system using near-infrared up-conversion, this invention addresses the issue of insufficient curing encountered in single photocuring or thermal curing processes. Moreover, by incorporating near-infrared light source-driven additive manufacturing, it enables rapid prototyping of high-solid-content non-oxide ceramic slurry, ultimately allowing for the fabrication of high-fidelity non-oxide ceramic structures.

Disclosed is a method of making high temperature fiber including chemically bonding high temperature material to a fiber template at a first temperature to form a precursor fiber and processing the precursor fiber at a second temperature to form the high temperature fiber. The first temperature does not equal the second temperature. Also disclosed are high temperature fibers made by the method.

This invention provides resin formulations which may be used for 3D printing and pyrolyzing to produce a ceramic matrix composite. The resin formulations contain a solid-phase filler, to provide high thermal stability and mechanical strength (e.g., fracture toughness) in the final ceramic material. The invention provides direct, free-form 3D printing of a preceramic polymer loaded with a solid-phase filler, followed by converting the preceramic polymer to a 3D-printed ceramic matrix composite with potentially complex 3D shapes or in the form of large parts. Other variations provide active solid-phase functional additives as solid-phase fillers, to perform or enhance at least one chemical, physical, mechanical, or electrical function within the ceramic structure as it is being formed as well as in the final structure. Solid-phase functional additives actively improve the final ceramic structure through one or more changes actively induced by the additives during pyrolysis or other thermal treatment.

A process of forming a Si-containing ceramic comprises forming a Si-based polymeric composition. The process includes neutralizing a charge of said Si-based polymeric composition. The process includes adding thermal energy under a controlled atmosphere to the Si-based polymeric composition. A turbine engine component comprises an airfoil and the airfoil comprises a Ceramic Matrix Composite (CMC) material.

The present invention is directed to a surface-coated cubic boron nitride sintered material tool including a cBN substrate and a hard coating layer formed on a surface of the cBN substrate and having an alternate laminated structure of A layer and B layer. The cBN substrate (sintered material) includes: a Ti compound, WC, AlN, TiB.sub.2, Al.sub.2O.sub.3, and cBN. The A layer has a composition of (Ti.sub.1-xAl.sub.x)N (0.4x0.7 in terms of atomic ratio). The B layer has a composition of (Cr.sub.1-y-zAl.sub.yM.sub.z)N (0.03y0.4 and 0z0.05 in terms of atomic ratio). A plastic deformation work ratio of the B layer is 0.35 to 0.50.

A composite material having a grainy appearance, this composite material including a metal matrix which represents, in terms of volume fraction, between 50 and 95% of the grainy composite material, the ceramic particles having a diameter that lies in the range 0.1 to 2 mm and which represent, in terms of volume fraction, between 50 and 5% of the composite material are dispersed in the metal matrix and form the remainder of this grainy composite material. A method for manufacturing a grainy synthetic material.

The present invention discloses a novel flash sintering process for synthesis of MAX phases, namely, but not limited to Ti.sub.2SnC and Ti.sub.3SiC.sub.2 in an extremely short time. The process is a combustion synthesis where a relatively low voltage in a range of 20-60 V/cm is applied using a DC/AC power source across the compact precursor material prior to ignition. The flash event is observed with a quick rise in current flow in a range of 100-300 mA/mm.sup.2 followed by measured temperature range of 1200-1400? C. in a green compact body of different MAX phase compositions. The process of the present invention enables the synthesis of MAX phases in air by suppressing oxidation of the material because of the very short residence time of the flashing event. In addition, the present invention focuses on synthesis of MAX phase in bulk to serve as the starting material for the development of two-dimensional MXenes.

A method of making a layered MXene material comprises a) introducing dried MAX phase powder into a vessel under anhydrous, inert conditions, the MAX phase powder comprising a general formula of M.sub.n+1AX.sub.n (n=1, 2, 3, or 4), wherein M is a transition metal or p-block metalloid selected from the group consisting of Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo, W, Re, Cu, Ni, Ag, Zn, Cd, In, Sn, and Pb; interlayer A is a Group III, IV, or V metalloid selected from the group consisting of Al, Si, Ga, Ge, In, Sn, Pb, As, Bi, Sb, and X is one of C (carbon) and N (nitrogen); b) introducing a halogen and solvent to the dried MAX phase to create a halogen solution having a predetermined concentration; c) allowing a reaction to proceed for about 24 hours between 30-90? C. to create a reaction slurry comprising a MXene material.