A porous material includes an aggregate, and a binding material that binds the aggregate together in a state where pores are formed. The porous material contains 0.1 to 10.0 mass % of an MgO component, 0.5 to 25.0 mass % of an Al.sub.2O.sub.3 component, and 5.0 to 45.0 mass % of an SiO.sub.2 component with respect to the mass of the whole porous material, and further contains 0.01 to 5.5 mass % of an Sr component in terms of SrO.

Known processes for preparing a porous carbon material with a hierarchical porosity comprise the steps of a) providing at least one carbon source and at least one amphiphilic species, b) combining the carbon source and the amphiphilic species to obtain a precursor material, and c) heating the precursor material to obtain the porous carbon material having a modal pore size and a pore volume. In order to avoid a lengthy hydrothermal treatment and to allow tunability of the pore size, pore size distribution and pore volume in carbon material, it is proposed that the heating step c) comprises a low temperature treatment in which the precursor material is heated to a first temperature in the range between 300° C. and 600° C. to obtain a self-assembled porous carbonaceous material, and wherein heating to the first temperature comprises a first average heating rate in the range of 0.5° C./min to 5° C./min.

A dielectric material includes a base material containing barium zirconate titanate as a main component, containing zirconium in an amount of 4 at % or more and 30 at % or less with respect to titanium and zirconium, and having an atomic concentration ratio of barium to titanium and zirconium of 1 or more and 1. 1 or less, and a subcomponent containing 2 at % or more and 4 at % or less of europium with respect to titanium of the barium zirconate titanate.

A ceramic article includes a ceramic matrix composite that has a porous reinforcement structure and a ceramic matrix within pores of the porous reinforcement structure. The ceramic matrix composite includes a surface zone comprised of an exterior surface of the ceramic matrix composite and pores that extend from the exterior surface into the ceramic matrix composite. A glaze material seals the surface zone within the pores of the surface zone and on the exterior surface of the surface zone as an exterior glaze layer on the ceramic matrix composite. The glaze material is a glass or glass-ceramic material. The ceramic matrix composite includes an interior zone under the surface zone, and the interior zone is free of any of the glaze material and has a greater porosity than the surface zone.

An oxide superconductor of an embodiment includes an oxide superconductor layer having a continuous Perovskite structure containing rare earth elements, barium (Ba), and copper (Cu). The rare earth elements contain a first element which is praseodymium (Pr), at least one second element selected from the group consisting of neodymium (Nd), samarium (Sm), europium (Eu), and gadolinium (Gd), at least one third element selected from the group consisting of yttrium (Y), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), and holmium (Ho), and at least one fourth element selected from the group consisting of erbium (Er), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), and lutetium (Lu).

One aspect of the present invention is a multilayer ceramic capacitor including a plurality of dielectric layers composed of a dielectric ceramic containing grains whose main component is barium titanate having a core-shell structure made up of a core part and a shell part, and grains whose main component is calcium titanate having a core-shell structure made up of a core part and a shell part; and a plurality of internal electrodes stacked alternately with each of the plurality of dielectric layers.

An oxide superconductor of an embodiment includes an oxide superconductor layer having a continuous Perovskite structure including rare earth elements, barium (Ba), and copper (Cu). The rare earth elements include a first element which is praseodymium, at least one second element selected from the group consisting of neodymium, samarium, europium, and gadolinium, at least one third element selected from the group consisting of yttrium, terbium, dysprosium, and holmium, and at least one fourth element selected from the group consisting of erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium. When the number of atoms of the first element is N(PA), the number of atoms of the second element is N(SA), and the number of atoms of the fourth element is N(CA), 1.5×(N(PA)+N(SA))≤N(CA) or 2×(N(CA)−N(PA))≤N(SA) is satisfied.

A ceramic electronic device includes a multilayer chip in which a plurality of dielectric layers of which a main component is ceramic and a plurality of internal electrode layers are stacked. The plurality of internal electrode layers include Ni, Sn and Au.

Methods of producing a ceramic article include heating the ceramic green body containing a quantity of one or more organic materials to extract only a fraction of the organic materials from the ceramic green body by exposing the ceramic green body to a process atmosphere which is heated to a hold temperature of from 225° C. to about 400° C. and has from 2% to 7% O.sub.2 by volume of the process atmosphere. The method further includes cooling the ceramic green body to a temperature of below 200° C., exposing the ceramic green body to a higher concentration of O.sub.2 than in the process atmosphere of the heating step, and firing the ceramic green body to form the ceramic article. Volatile extraction units for implementing the methods are also described.

A dielectric ceramic that includes multiple crystal grains, each of the multiple crystal grains having an interface, a barium titanate (BaTiO.sub.3)-based compound as a main component thereof, and a rare earth element. The dielectric ceramic has a cross-section in which the multiple crystal grains has a concentration varying region, a high concentration region, and a low concentration region. The concentration varying region has an RE/Ti ratio differing by 3% or more. The high concentration region has an RE/Ti ratio of 5% to 20%. The low concentration region has an RE/Ti ratio of 0% to 2%.