Disclosed herein are compounds, methods, and tools which comprise tungsten borides and mixed transition metal borides.

A composite magnetic material has a plurality of grains having a magnetic ferrite phase, grain boundaries surrounding the grains, and a plurality of nanoparticles disposed at the grain boundaries. The nanoparticles of the composite material are both magnetic and electrically insulating, having a magnetic flux density of greater than about 100 mT and an electrical resistivity of at least about 10.sup.8 Ohm-cm. Also provided is a method of making the composite material. The material is useful for making inductor cores of electronic devices.

A barium titanate piezoelectric ceramic having good piezoelectric properties and mechanical strength and a piezoelectric element that includes the ceramic are provided. A method for making a piezoelectric ceramic includes forming a compact composed of an oxide powder containing barium titanate particles, sintering the compact, and decreasing the temperature of the compact after the sintering. The sintering includes (A) increasing the temperature of the compact to a first temperature within a temperature range of a shrinking process of the compact; (B) increasing the temperature of the compact to a second temperature within a temperature range of a liquid phase sintering process of the compact after (A); (C) decreasing the temperature of the compact to a third temperature within the temperature range of the shrinking process of the compact after (B); and (D) retaining the third temperature after (C).

A sintered material exhibiting the following chemical composition, as percentages by weight: iron oxide(s), expressed in the Fe.sub.2O.sub.3 form, 85%, CaO: 0.1%-6%, SiO.sub.2: 0.1%-6%, 0.05% TiO.sub.2, 0Al.sub.2O.sub.3, TiO.sub.2+Al.sub.2O.sub.33%, and constituents other than iron oxides, CaO, SiO.sub.2, TiO.sub.2 and Al.sub.2O.sub.3: 5%. The CaO/SiO.sub.2 ratio by weight is between 0.2 and 7. The TiO.sub.2/CaO ratio by weight is between 0.2 and 1.5.

A composite sintered material contains cubic boron nitride particles and binder particles. The composite sintered material contains 40 vol % or more and 80 vol % or less of the cubic boron nitride particles. The binder particles contain TiCN particles. The composite sintered material shows a first peak belonging to a (200) plane of the TiCN particles in a range in which a Bragg angle 2 is 41.7 or more and 42.6 or less in an X-ray diffraction spectrum measured using a Cu-K ray as a ray source.

The present invention provides a focus ring having favorable plasma resistance. In addition, the present invention provides a method for producing a focus ring which enables the easy production of focus rings having favorable plasma resistance. The focus ring of the present invention is a focus ring made of a sintered body of silicon carbide, in which the sintered body includes a plurality of first crystal grains having an -SiC-type crystal structure and a plurality of second crystal grains having a -SiC-type crystal structure, a content of the first crystal grains is 70% by volume or more of a total of the first crystal grains and the second crystal grains, and a volume-average crystallite diameter of the first crystal grains is 10 m or less.

A hydrogen permeation membrane is provided that can include a carbon-based material (C) and a ceramic material (BZCYT) mixed together. The carbon-based material can include graphene, graphite, carbon nanotubes, or a combination thereof. The ceramic material can have the formula BaZr.sub.1-x-y-zCe.sub.xY.sub.yT.sub.zO.sub.3-?, where 0?x?0.5, 0?y?0.5, 0?z?0.5, (x+y+z)>0; 0???0.5, and T is Yb, Sc, Ti, Nb, Ta, Mo, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, In, or a combination thereof. In addition, the BZYCT can be present in the C-BZCYT mixture in an amount ranging from about 40% by volume to about 80% by volume. Further, a method of forming such a membrane is also provided. A method is also provided for extracting hydrogen from a feed stream.

A composite powder of the present invention includes a glass powder and a ceramic powder, wherein a content of the glass powder is from 30 vol % to 60 vol %, wherein a content of the ceramic powder is from 40 vol % to 70 vol %, wherein the glass powder includes as a glass composition, in terms of mass %, 10% to 30% of SiO.sub.2, more than 20% to 40% of B.sub.2O.sub.3, 20% to 40% of SrO+BaO, 0% to 10% of Al.sub.2O.sub.3, and 0% to 15% of ZnO, and wherein the composite powder is used for a light reflective substrate.

In one aspect, sintered ceramic bodies are described herein which, in some embodiments, demonstrate improved resistance to wear and enhanced cutting lifetimes. For example, a sintered ceramic body comprises tungsten carbide (WC) in an amount of 40-95 weight percent, alumina in an amount of 5-30 weight percent and ditungsten carbide (W.sub.2C) in an amount of at least 1 weight percent.

There is provided a lead-free piezoelectric material having a satisfactory piezoelectric constant and mechanical quality factor in the range of device operating temperatures (from 30 C. to 50 C.). The piezoelectric material contains a main constituent containing a perovskite-type metal oxide expressed by the general formula (Ba.sub.1-xCa.sub.x).sub.a(Ti.sub.1-yZr.sub.y)O.sub.3, where x, y and a satisfy the 0.030x<0.090, 0.030y0.080, and 0.9860a1.0200. The material also contains 0.040 to 0.500 part by weight of Mn, 0.042 to 0.850 part by weight of Bi, 0 to 0.028 part by weight of Li, 0.001 to 4.000 part by weight of a third sub-constituent including at least one of Si and B, and 0.001 to 4.000 parts by weight of Cu, each in terms of element relative to 100 parts by weight of the metal oxide.