Material, use thereof and method to manufacture said material; wherein the material is porous and has: a total porosity ranging from 50% to 80%, in particular from 60% to 70%; interconnected pores; at least a part made of a hydrophilic material, in particular at least a part of the inner surfaces of the pores is made of a hydrophilic material; a permeability coefficient (k) greater than 106 m/sec; and wherein, in a given volume of the material (1), the total volume of pores with a diameter ranging from 0.1.Math. to approximately 0.3 nm is at least greater than 15% of the total volume of the pores, preferably it ranges from 15 to 36%.

Embodiments disclosed herein are related to polycrystalline textured materials exhibiting heterogeneous templated grain growth, methods of forming such materials, and related systems. An example of a method of forming a polycrystalline textured material exhibiting heterogeneous templated grain growth includes providing a plurality of seeds. The method also includes aligning at least some of the plurality of seeds (e.g., single-crystal seeds) so that a selected crystallographic orientation of at least some of the plurality of seeds are substantially aligned with each other. Additionally, the method includes positioning the plurality of seeds in a powder matrix. The method then includes pressing the plurality of seeds and the powdered matrix to form a green body. Further, the method includes sintering the green body at a temperature that is sufficient to grow a plurality of grains from corresponding ones of the plurality of seeds to form the polycrystalline textured material.

An oxide sintered body which is obtained by mixing and sintering zinc oxide, indium oxide, gallium oxide and tin oxide. The relative density of the oxide sintered body is 85% or more and the average grain size of crystal grains observed on the surface of the oxide sintered body is less than 10 m. X-ray diffraction of the oxide sintered body shows that a Zn.sub.2SnO.sub.4 phase and an InGaZnO.sub.4 phase are the main phases and that an InGaZn.sub.2O.sub.5 phase is contained in an amount of 3 volume % or less.

[Object] To provide: an InCeO-based sputtering target capable of suppressing nodules and abnormal discharge over a long period, even though the Ce content based on an atomic ratio of Ce/(In+Ce) is 0.16 to 0.40, at which a high-refractive-index film can be obtained; and a method for producing the InCeO-based sputtering target. [Solving Means] The sputtering target is an InCeO-based sputtering target which is made of an InCeO-based oxide sintered body containing indium oxide as a main component and cerium, and which is used in producing a transparent conductive film having a refractive index of 2.1 or more. The target is characterized in that the Ce content based on the atomic ratio of Ce/(In+Ce) is 0.16 to 0.40, and that cerium oxide particles having a particle diameter of 5 m or less are dispersed in the InCeO-based oxide sintered body.

A cutting edge tip of a cubic boron nitride sintered body has improved joint strength to a substrate of a cemented carbide. A cutting edge tip of a cubic boron nitride sintered body has improved crater wear resistance. A tool 10 of the present invention includes a substrate 12 of a cemented carbide and a cutting edge tip 14 of a cubic boron nitride sintered body joined to the substrate 12. The cutting edge tip 14 has a thickness covering an upper surface 12a to a lower surface 12b of the substrate 12. The cubic boron nitride sintered body contains 50 volume % or more and 95 volume % or less of cubic boron nitride and 5 volume % or more and 50 volume % or less of a binder phase. The cubic boron nitride has an average grain size of 1.0 m or more and 6.0 m or less.

A cBN sintered compact comprises: cubic boron nitride grains and a binder phase, wherein 1) the binder phase comprises a TiAl alloy containing at least one element selected from the group consisting of Si, Mg, and Zn, and further comprises Ti.sub.2CN and TiB.sub.2; 2) the ratio I.sub.Ti2CN/I.sub.Ti-Al in XRD is 2.0 or more and 30.0 or less where I.sub.Ti2CN represents the peak intensity of Ti.sub.2CN appearing at 2? angle from 41.9? to 42.2? and I.sub.Ti-Al represents the peak intensity of the TiAl alloy at 2? angle from 39.0? to 39.3?; 3) areas where Ti and B elements overlap have an average aspect ratio of 1.7 or more and 6.5 or less and an area rate of 0.025% or more and 0.120% or less, in a mapping image of the Ti and B elements by Auger electron spectroscopy.

A lead-free piezoelectric ceramic composition which includes a primary phase formed of an alkali niobate-based perovskite oxide represented by a compositional formula (A1.sub.aM1.sub.b).sub.c(Nb.sub.d1, Mn.sub.d2, M2.sub.d3)O.sub.3+e (in which element A1 represents at least one species among the alkali metals; element M1 represents at least one species among Ba, Ca, and Sr; element M2 represents at least one species of Ti and Zr; the following conditions: 0<a<1, 0<b<1, a+b=1, 0.80<c<1.10, 0<d1<1, 0<d2<1, 0<d3<1, and d1+d2+d3=1, are satisfied; and e represents a value showing the degree of deficiency or excess of oxygen) and which satisfies the condition: b/(d2+d3)>1.0.

A rock drill insert made of cemented carbide includes hard constituents of tungsten carbide (WC) in a binder phase of NiCr, or NiCoCr, and a balance of WC and unavoidable impurities. The cemented carbide has a 3.5-18 wt % binder phase. The binder phase has >0 wt % Ni. The mass ratio Cr/(Ni+Co) is 0.02-0.19. A difference between the hardness at 0.3 mm depth at some point of the surface of the rock drill insert and the minimum hardness of the bulk of the rock drill insert is at least 30 HV3.

Disclosed is a ceramic sintered body comprising yttrium oxide and zirconium oxide wherein the ceramic sintered body comprises not less than 75 mol % to not greater than 95 mol % yttrium oxide and not less than 5 mol % to not greater than 25 mol % zirconium oxide, wherein the ceramic sintered body comprises porosity in an amount of less than 2% by volume, wherein a density of the ceramic sintered body does not vary by more than 2% relative to theoretical density across a greatest dimension. The ceramic sintered body has a grain size of from 0.4 to less than 2 um as measured according to ASTM E1 12-2010. The ceramic sintered body may be machined into plasma resistant components for use in plasma processing chambers. Methods of making are also disclosed.

A method of forming a composite cutter for a downhole drilling tool is described. The method includes: mixing a polycrystalline diamond powder and a cubic boron nitride powder with a molar ratio between 0.1 and 0.9 to form a catalyst-free composite mixture; placing the catalyst-free composite mixture into a mold configured in a shape of a cutter; exposing the catalyst-free composite mixture to an ultra-high-pressure, high-temperature treatment including a pressure between 11 Gigapascals (GPa) and 20 GPa, and a temperature between 1300 Kelvins (K) and 2600 K to form a solid composite body; and cooling the solid composite body to form the composite cutter.