A guide member for a fishing line including an alumina ceramic including Ti and Al, a content of Ti being not less than 0.5 mass % in terms of TiO.sub.2, a content of Al being not less than 92 mass % in terms of Al.sub.2O.sub.3, and a main phase of the alumina ceramic being alumina crystals, wherein a content ratio of aluminas crystal with an aspect ratio of not less than 2 within the alumina crystals is not less than 15%.

Set forth herein are garnet material compositions, e.g., lithium-stuffed garnets and lithium-stuffed garnets doped with alumina, which are suitable for use as electrolytes and catholytes in solid state battery applications. Also set forth herein are lithium-stuffed garnet thin films having fine grains therein. Disclosed herein are novel and inventive methods of making and using lithium-stuffed garnets as catholytes, electrolytes and/or anolytes for all solid state lithium rechargeable batteries. Also disclosed herein are novel electrochemical devices which incorporate these garnet catholytes, electrolytes and/or anolytes. Also set forth herein are methods for preparing novel structures, including dense thin (<50 um) free standing membranes of an ionically conducting material for use as a catholyte, electrolyte, and, or, anolyte, in an electrochemical device, a battery component (positive or negative electrode materials), or a complete solid state electrochemical energy storage device. Also, the methods set forth herein disclose novel sintering techniques, e.g., for heating and/or field assisted (FAST) sintering, for solid state energy storage devices and the components thereof.

A cBN sintered body contains cBN particles whose proportion is 85-97% by volume, and a binding phase whose proportion is 3-15% by volume. The cBN sintered body contains Al whose ratio to the entirety of the cBN sintered body is 0.1-5% by mass, and Co whose mass ratio to the Al is 3 to 40, and includes Al.sub.3B.sub.6Co.sub.20.

The present invention provides a Zintl-phase thermoelectric conversion material represented by the chemical formula (I):

Mg.sub.3+m-aA.sub.aB.sub.2-c-eC.sub.cE.sub.e (I) where A represents at least one selected from the group consisting of Ca, Sr, Ba, Nb, Zn, and Al; B represents at least one selected from the group consisting of Sb and Bi; C represents at least one selected from the group consisting of Mn, Si, and Cr; E represents at least one selected from the group consisting of Se and Te; m is not less than 0.1 and not more than 0.4; a is not less than 0 and not more than 0.1; c is not less than 0 and not more than 0.1; e is not less than 0.001 and not more than 0.06; and the Zintl-phase thermoelectric conversion material has a La.sub.2O.sub.3 crystal structure and an average grain size of not less than 3 micrometers and not more than 70 micrometers.

Refractory composite material based on Al.sub.2O.sub.3 in the form of corundum, SiO.sub.2 in the form of quartz and sodium aluminate having the formula NaAl.sub.11O.sub.17 or Na.sub.2O-11Al.sub.2O.sub.3, method for preparing the same, use thereof for preparing manufactured items, as well as manufactured items made thereby and use thereof.

The invention relates to a ceramic composite material and to the production and use thereof. The invention especially relates to a zirconium oxide-based composite material, a homogeneous multiphase polycrystalline ceramic material.

A plate-shaped lithium composite oxide is used as a positive electrode of a lithium ion battery. The plate-shaped lithium composite oxide is composed of a plurality of bound primary particles. The plurality of bound primary particles are respectively constituted by a lithium composite oxide having a layered rock-salt structure. An average number of the primary particles disposed in a thickness direction perpendicular to a plate face is less than or equal to 6.

A shower plate according to the present disclosure includes a ceramic sintered body, the ceramic sintered body comprising a first surface, a second surface facing the first surface, and a through hole positioned between the first surface and the second surface. An inner surface of the through hole includes a protruding crystal grain which protrudes more than an exposed part of a grain boundary phase existing between crystal grains. In addition, a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to the present disclosure includes the shower plate mentioned above.

The present invention discloses a method for uniformly coating metal nanoparticles without a carbon impurity on an oxide ceramic powder surface, which includes the steps of putting grinded and mixed a metal organic material and oxide ceramic powder into a rotational reaction chamber, then bubbling oxidizing gas under a rotational and heating condition to oxidize the metal organic material into a metal oxide, and finally bubbling reducing gas to reduce the metal oxide into nanoparticles in a metallic state, so as to implement the uniform coating of the nanoparticles in the metallic state, and avoid coarsening and growing problems of nanoparticles led by a long-term coating reaction under a high temperature. The present invention has a simple method and a short preparation period, and the metal nanoparticles prepared are uniformly dispersed and have wide application prospects in multiple fields like catalytic materials and conductive ceramics.

A proton conducting ceramic membrane comprising a conducting layer, wherein said conducting layer comprises a mixture of a rare-earth tungstate as herein defined and a mixed metal oxide as herein defined. The invention also relates to a reactor comprising said membrane and the use of said membrane in a dehydrogenation process.