A non-amorphous hard carbon material, synthesized from Furan-ring containing compounds, is described. These non-amorphous hard carbon materials have a d.sub.002 peak in their X-ray diffraction patterns, corresponding to an interlayer spacing of >3.6 , along with a prominent D-band peak in their Raman spectra. BET surface area values between 2 m.sup.2/gm and around 100 m.sup.2/gm can be obtained by controlling the processing parameters of temperature, time and heating rate. The higher surface area HCsin Li-ion and Na-ion anode configurationsare capable of high charging rates up to 100 C with a cycle life of up to 1000 cycles. Composites of these non-amorphous hard carbons with silicon and lithium compounds are also disclosed.

A dielectric ceramic composition includes a main component of a perovskite type compound represented by a general formula of ABO.sub.3, in which A is an element in an A-site, B is an element in a B-site, and O is an oxygen element. A includes Ba. A further includes at least one of Ca and Sr. B includes Ti. A sintered-body lattice volume obtained by X-ray diffraction method is 64.33 .sup.3 or below.

Disclosed is a microcracked ceramic body, comprising a predominant phase (greater than 50 wt %) of zirconium tin titanate and a dilatometric coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) from 25 to 1000 C of not more than 4010.sup.7 C..sup.1 as measured by dilatometry and methods for the manufacture of the same.

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.

There are provided an oxide sintered material containing an In.sub.2O.sub.3 crystal phase, a Zn.sub.4In.sub.2O.sub.7 crystal phase and a ZnWO.sub.4 crystal phase, and a method of producing the oxide sintered material. The method includes forming the oxide sintered material by sintering a molded body containing In, W and Zn, and forming the oxide sintered material including placing the molded body at a first constant temperature selected from a temperature range of 500 C. or more and 1000 C. or less for 30 minutes or longer.

An oxide sintered body is characterized in that it comprises an oxide including an In element, a Zn element, a Sn element and a Y element and that a sintered body density is equal to or more than 100.00% of a theoretical density.

A turbine component such as a turbine blade or a vane of a distributor, which includes a polycrystalline substrate containing grains, the substrate having at least one Ti.sub.3AlC.sub.2 phase and the mass fraction of the phase of the alloy is greater than 97%, with the average length of the grains is less than 50 m, the average width-to-length ratio is between 0.4 and 0.6, and the average mesh volume of the Ti.sub.3AlC.sub.2 phase is less than 152.4 .sup.3.

A method of growing a FE material thin film using physical vapor deposition by pulsed laser deposition or RF sputtering is disclosed. The method involves creating a target to be used for the pulsed laser deposition in order to create a KBNNO thin film. The resultant KBNNO thin film is able to be used in photovoltaic cells.

A particulate material with a composition expressed by Ti.sub.2Al.sub.x (C.sub.(1-y)N.sub.y).sub.z (where x is more than 0.02, y is 0<y<1.0, and z is from 0.8 to 1.20), the particulate material comprising layers including gap layers providing an interlayer distance of from 0.59 nm to 0.70 nm within a crystal lattice; and/or with another composition expressed by Ti.sub.3Al.sub.x(C.sub.(1-y)N.sub.y).sub.z (where x is more than 0.02, y is 0<y<1.0, and z is from 1.80 to 2.60), the particulate material comprising layers including gap layers providing an interlayer distance of from 0.44 nm to 0.55 nm within a crystal lattice.

A piezoelectric material including a perovskite-type metal oxide represented by the following general formula (1); Bi; and Mn, wherein the content of Bi is 0.1-0.5 mol % with respect to 1 mol of the metal oxide, the content of Mn is 0.3-1.5 mol % with respect to 1 mol of the metal oxide, and the piezoelectric material satisfies (L.sub.4L.sub.5)/L.sub.50.05 and (L.sub.8L.sub.9)/L.sub.90.05 when the lengths of twelve BiO bonds with Bi that is located at a 12-fold site with respect to O in a perovskite-type unit cell as a starting point are taken to be L.sub.1 to L.sub.12 in length order:
(Ba.sub.1-xM1.sub.x)(Ti.sub.1-yM2.sub.y)O.sub.3(1)
wherein 0x0.2, 0y0.1, and M1 and M2 are mutually different metal elements which have a total valence of +6 and are selected from other elements than Ba, Ti, Bi and Mn.