The present invention relates to a green body, a pre-ceramic body and a ceramic body based on metal oxide particles, in particular zirconium oxide. The present invention also relates to the method of producing said materials and to the use thereof, in particular in the field of dentistry.

A cubic boron nitride sintered material comprising cubic boron nitride grains, a binder phase, and a void, in which a percentage of the cubic boron nitride grains based on the total of the cubic boron nitride grains and the binder phase is 40 vol % to 70 vol %, a percentage of the binder phase based on the total of the cubic boron nitride grains and the binder phase is 30 vol % to 60 vol %, the binder phase includes 10 vol % to 100 vol % of aluminum oxide grains, an average grain size of the aluminum oxide grains is 50 to 250 nm, the cubic boron nitride sintered material comprises 0.001 vol % to 0.100 vol % of one or more first voids, and at least one portion of each of the first voids is in contact with the aluminum oxide grains.

A method for manufacturing a zirconia sintered body includes molding a powder composition that has a yttria content of more than 3% by mole and 5.2% by mole or less and that contains a first zirconia powder having a yttria content of 2% by mole or more and 4% by mole or less and a second zirconia powder having a yttria content of more than 4% by mole and 6% by mole or less to obtain a green body, and sintering the green body to obtain a sintered body.

A zirconia powder is provided comprising a yttria source and zirconia, wherein a content of the yttria source is 4.5 mol % or more and 6.5 mol % or less and the remainder is zirconia, a ratio of a total of tetragonal and cubic crystals to an entire crystal phase of zirconia is 90% or less, a BET specific surface area is 7.5 m.sup.2/g or more and 15 m.sup.2/g or less, and an average crystallite size is 325 Å or greater. The powders are useful in producing sintered bodies having the mechanical strength and the translucency desired for use in dental prosthetic materials, and precursors thereof.

A cubic boron nitride (cBN)-based composite including about 30-65 vol. % cBN, about 15-45 vol. % titanium (Ti)-containing binders, about 2-20 vol. % zirconium dioxide (ZrO.sub.2), about 3-15 vol. % cobalt-tungsten-borides (Co.sub.xW.sub.yB.sub.z), and about 2-15 vol. % aluminum oxide (Al.sub.2O.sub.3).

A cubic boron nitride (cBN)-based composite including about 30-65 vol. % cBN, about 3-30 vol. % zirconium (Zr)-containing compounds, about 0-10 vol. % cobalt-tungsten-borides (Co.sub.xW.sub.yB.sub.z), about 2-30 vol. % aluminum oxide (Al.sub.2O.sub.3), about 0.5-10 vol. % tungsten borides, and less than or equal to about 5 vol. % aluminum nitride (AlN).

The cubic boron nitride sintered material is a cubic boron nitride sintered material comprising: cubic boron nitride particles in an amount of 70 vol % or more and less than 100 vol %, and a bonding material, wherein the bonding material includes an aluminum compound, and includes cobalt as a constituent element; the cubic boron nitride sintered material has a first region in which a space between adjacent cubic boron nitride particles is 0.1 nm or more and 10 nm or less; and when the first region is analyzed by using an energy dispersive X-ray analyzer equipped with a transmission electron microscope, the atom % of aluminum in the first region is 0.1 or more.

A solid electrolyte includes partially stabilized zirconia in which a stabilizer forms a solid solution in zirconia. The partially stabilized zirconia includes, as crystal particles that configure the partially stabilized zirconia, stabilizer low-concentration phase particles of which concentration of the stabilizer at a particle center is less than 4.7 mol % and stabilizer high-concentration phase particles of which the concentration of the stabilizer at the particle center is equal to or greater than 4.7 mol %. The partially stabilized zirconia includes an adjacent particle portion in which two or more particles of the stabilizer low-concentration phase particles of which an average particle size is greater than 0.1 μm are adjacent. An abundance ratio of the stabilizer high-concentration phase particles on a cross-section of the solid electrolyte is equal to or greater than 70% in terms of area ratio relative to all crystal particles.

A dielectric composition includes dielectric particles. At least one of the dielectric particles include a main phase and a secondary phase. The main phase has a main component of barium titanate. The secondary phase exists inside the main phase and has a higher barium content than the main phase.

Thermoelectric (TE) nanocomposite material that includes at least one component consisting of nanocrystals. A TE nanocomposite material in accordance with the present invention can include, but is not limited to, multiple nanocrystalline structures, nanocrystal networks or partial networks, or multi-component materials, with some components forming connected interpenetrating networks including nanocrystalline networks. The TE nanocomposite material can be in the form of a bulk solid having semiconductor nanocrystallites that form an electrically conductive network within the material. In other embodiments, the TE nanocomposite material can be a nanocomposite thermoelectric material having one network of p-type or n-type semiconductor domains and a low thermal conductivity semiconductor or dielectric network or domains separating the p-type or n-type domains that provides efficient phonon scattering to reduce thermal conductivity while maintaining the electrical properties of the p-type or n-type semiconductor.