A method of making a plurality of composite granules can include: forming green body granules comprising an aluminosilicate; heating the green body granules to form sintered granules; cooling the sintered granules according to a cooling regime, wherein the cooling regime comprises a temperature hold between 700° C. and 900° C. for at least one hour. In a particular embodiment, the aluminosilicate for making the composite granules can have a particle size less than 150 μm. The composite granules are particularly suitable as roofing granules and can have a desired combination of high solar reflectance SR and low lightness L*, a low bulk density, good weather resistance and strength.

The invention relates to a process for metallizing ferrite ceramics, which comprises the following steps: arrangement of a contact element composed of copper or a copper alloy on a surface of the ferrite ceramic, melting of the contact element at least in the region in which the contact element contacts the surface of the ferrite ceramic, and cooling of the contact element and the ferrite ceramic to below the melting point of copper or the copper alloy.

A target for sputtering which enables to attain high rate film-formation of a transparent conductive film suitable for a blue LED or a solar cell. A oxide sintered body includes an indium oxide and a cerium oxide, and one or more oxide of titanium, zirconium, hafnium, molybdenum and tungsten. The cerium content is 0.3 to 9% by atom, as an atomicity ratio of Ce/(In+Ce), and the content of cerium is equal to or lower than 9% by atom, as an atomicity ratio of Ce/(In+Ce). The oxide sintered body has an In.sub.2O.sub.3 phase of a bixbyite structure has a CeO.sub.2 phase of a fluorite-type structure finely dispersed as crystal grains having an average particle diameter of equal to or smaller than 3 μm.

A magnetic composite includes a polymeric substrate and a magnetic material including a Z-type phase and represented by the following Chemical Formula:

Ba.sub.1.5-xSr.sub.1.5-xCa.sub.2xM.sub.2Fe.sub.24O.sub.41  Chemical Formula

wherein, in the Chemical Formula, M is at least one selected from Co, Ni, Cu, Mg, Mn, Ti, Al, Zn, and Zr, and 0≦x<0.3.

Isopipes (13) for making glass sheets using a fusion process are provided. The isopipes are made from alumina materials which have low levels of the elements of group IVB of the periodic chart, i.e., Ti, Zr, and Hf, as well as low levels of Sn. In this way, the alumina isopipes can be used with glasses that contain tin (e.g., as a fining agent or as the result of the use of tin electrodes for electrical heating of molten glass) without generating unacceptable levels of tin-containing defects in the glass sheets, specifically, at the sheets' fusion lines. The alumina isopipes disclosed herein are especially beneficial when used with tin-containing glasses that exhibit low tin solubility, e.g., glasses that have (RO+R.sub.2O)/Al.sub.2O.sub.3 ratios between 0.9 and 1.1, where, in mole percent on an oxide basis, (RO+R.sub.2O) is the sum of the concentrations of the glass' alkaline earth and alkali metal oxides and Al.sub.2O.sub.3 is the glass' alumina concentration.

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.

Process for preparing a porous monolith comprising between 10% and 100% by weight of a semiconductor relative to the total weight of the porous monolith, which process comprises the following steps: a) a first aqueous suspension containing polymer particles is prepared; b) a second aqueous suspension containing particles of least one inorganic semiconductor is prepared; c) the two aqueous suspensions prepared in steps a) and b) are mixed in order to obtain a paste; d) a heat treatment of the paste obtained in step c) is carried out in order to obtain the monolith with multimodal porosity.

An oxide ceramic having a principal component formed of a ferrite compound containing at least Sr, Co, and Fe, and zirconium in an amount of 0.05 to 1.0 wt. % on an oxide equivalent basis, and a ceramic electronic component using the oxide ceramic.

A multilayer ceramic capacitor includes a ceramic body including dielectric layers and first and second internal electrodes disposed to face each other with respective dielectric layers interposed therebetween; and first and second external electrodes disposed on outer surfaces of the ceramic body, wherein the dielectric layer contains zirconium (Zr), a Zr content is 2×Zr/(Ba+Ca+Ti+Zr) based on an atomic ratio, a first crystal grain is composed of a core part having a Zr content of 3.0 at % or less and a shell part having a Zr content of 4.0 to 15.0 at %, and a number fraction of the first crystal grain to all crystal grains in the dielectric layer is 4% or more.

A sputtering target having a one-piece top coat comprising a mixture of oxides of zinc, tin, and optionally gallium, characterized in that said one-piece top coat has a length of at least 80 cm; a method for forming such a sputtering target and the use of such a target for forming films.