Described herein are sintered spheres, obtained from red mud, comprising at least aluminium oxide, iron oxides, silicon oxide, and titanium oxide, characterized in that the roundness and the sphericity of the sintered spheres is higher than 0.6.

Described is further a process for the production of sintered spheres, comprising the following steps: a) providing red mud, being a residue from alumina production, b) optionally adjusting the pH value of the red mud to a value lower than 9, c) granulating the red mud from step b) under continuous drying, d) sintering the granulate from step c).

Described herein is also the use of sintered spheres as proppant in fracking processes or as aggregate or lightweight fine aggregate (LWFA) for construction purposes or for geological solidification processes.

This invention provides doped ceria-based materials exhibiting electrostriction properties and methods of preparation thereof.

The present disclosure relates generally to ceramic materials suitable for use as catalyst support materials, catalysts using such materials and methods for using them, such as methods for converting sugars, sugar alcohols, glycerol, and bio-renewable organic acids to commercially-valuable chemicals and intermediates. One aspect of the invention is a ceramic material including zirconium oxide and one or more metal oxides selected from nickel oxide, copper oxide, cobalt oxide, iron oxide and zinc oxide, the ceramic material being at least about 50 wt. % zirconium oxide. In certain embodiments, the ceramic material is substantially free of any binder, extrusion aid or additional stabilizing agent.

A superconducting composition of matter including overlapping first and second regions. The regions comprise unit cells of a solid, the first region comprises an electrical insulator or semiconductor, and the second region comprises a metallic electrical conductor. The second region extends through the solid and a subset of said second region comprise surface metal unit cells that are adjacent to at least one unit cell from the first region. The ratio of the number of said surface metal unit cells to the total number of unit cells in the second region being at least 20 percent.

Methods of manufacturing a ceramic honeycomb body having a honeycomb structure with a matrix of intersecting walls, and a skin disposed on an outer peripheral portion of the matrix where the skin has a first average porosity and the interior portion of the matrix has a second average porosity greater than the first average porosity. The methods include coating at least the skin with a fluid formulation containing a sintering aid and subsequently firing the honeycomb structure. In certain embodiments, a glass layer is formed in the skin or in regions of the walls directly adjacent to the skin. In certain embodiments, the coating is applied to a green honeycomb body, and in other embodiments the coating is applied to a ceramic honeycomb body. Other honeycomb bodies and methods are described.

A method of forming a protective shield to protect an aircraft component from EMI or energy bursts includes the steps of combining a carbon-based or silicon-based preceramic polymer precursor and a metallic precursor to form a dope, processing the dope to provide a deposit that includes nano-structures, post-processing the deposit to provide a nano-structure material with a uniformly distributed base metal or metal compound, and forming a protective shield using the nano-structure material.

Composite ceramic materials are disclosed herein which comprise two or more crystalline phases, wherein a first crystalline phase comprises a first refractory material having a first melting point, and a second crystalline phase comprises a second refractory material having a second melting point which is lower than the first melting point, and the second crystalline phase comprises large domain sizes of the second refractory material. Articles comprising such a composite ceramic material, such as honeycomb bodies, catalytic substrates, and particulate filters, are also disclosed herein, in addition to methods of manufacture thereof.

Provided herein are nanofibers and processes of preparing carbonaceous nanofibers. In some embodiments, the nanofibers are high quality, high performance nanofibers, highly coherent nanofibers, highly continuous nanofibers, or the like. In some embodiments, the nanofibers have increased coherence, increased length, few voids and/or defects, and/or other advantageous characteristics. In some instances, the nanofibers are produced by electrospinning a fluid stock having a high loading of nanofiber precursor in the fluid stock. In some instances, the fluid stock comprises well mixed and/or uniformly distributed precursor in the fluid stock. In some instances, the fluid stock is converted into a nanofiber comprising few voids, few defects, long or tunable length, and the like.

An antimicrobial material including a substrate and an antimicrobial mixed metal oxide, mixed metal sulfide, or mixed metal oxysulfide in and/or on the substrate is described, as well as antimicrobial coating materials and coatings formed therefrom. The antimicrobial material may be constituted in an antimicrobial surface of a surface-presenting substrate, to combat transmission and spread of microbial disease, e.g., disease mediated by microbial pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Antimicrobial mixed metal oxide, mixed metal sulfide, or mixed metal oxysulfide as described may be contacted with microorganisms to effect inactivation thereof.

A honeycomb structure that is the porous ceramic structure is made of a ceramic material and has pores in a structure interior, the honeycomb structure has cerium dioxide, at least a part of the cerium dioxide is incorporated in the structure interior, at least a part of the incorporated cerium dioxide is exposed on pore surfaces of the pores, and at least a part of the exposed cerium dioxide is constituted as an oxide-containing cerium dioxide including iron oxide on the surface and/or in the part.