A toughened ceramic material includes at least one boride and a refractory metal, or at least two borides, one carbide at least, and a refractory metal. The toughened ceramic material is by means of heating and smelting the above materials. During the process of preparing the toughened ceramic material by heating and smelting, substantially all the refractory metal reacts with the boride and/or the carbide to form a toughened ceramic material with a high toughness and substantially without metallic cemented phase.

The invention relates to hydrocarbon pyrolysis, to equipment and materials useful for hydrocarbon pyrolysis, to processes for carrying out hydrocarbon pyrolysis, and to the use of hydrocarbon pyrolysis for, e.g., hydrocarbon upgrading.

A hypersonic refractory material, including a refractory leading edge portion for a hypersonic vehicle and a high emissivity oxide coating adhered to the refractory leading edge portion. The high emissivity oxide coating is ZrB.sub.2 doped with a cation dopant material selected from the group including Sm, Tm, and mixtures thereof. The cation dopant material is present in a concentration of between 3 mole percent and 8 mole percent.

A blade for a turbomachine comprising an outer shell and an inner core which is at least partially enclosed by the outer shell and has a higher porosity than the outer shell. The outer shell is formed by a ceramic body or a body made of a ceramic matrix composite material, and the inner core is formed by a fiber-reinforced ceramic or a fiber-reinforced ceramic matrix composite material.

One embodiment of the present invention provides a conductive ceramic composition comprising: conductive non-oxide ceramic particles; oxide ceramic particles electrostatically bonded or co-dispersed with the non-oxide ceramic particles; and a binder resin.

A shaping method includes irradiating a powder containing silicon carbide and metal boride with an energy beam based on shape data of an object of shaping to perform shaping, in which the metal boride has a melting point lower than the sublimation point of the silicon carbide.

Composites having the composition of at least one principal strengthening phase compound and one cemented phase of principal refractory metal are disclosed. The components of the strengthening phase compound can be a boride or a mixture of a boride and one or more than one carbide. In addition, the composites are obtained by smelting the principal strengthening phase compound and the cemented phase principal refractory metal in a non-equal molar ratio.

A composite composed of two principal strengthening compounds and one principal cementing refractory metal that is prepared by combining a suitable binary to senary borides and/or carbides with a unitary to binary principal refractory metal is disclosed. As compared with the conventional sintered cemented carbides, the composite of the disclosure not only possess high hardness and high toughness but also has various ratios of principal components since it is not prepared with equal mole during the process.

The invention relates to hydrocarbon pyrolysis, to equipment and materials useful for hydrocarbon pyrolysis, to processes for carrying out hydrocarbon pyrolysis, and to the use of hydrocarbon pyrolysis for, e.g., hydrocarbon upgrading.

Disclosed is a composition having nanoparticles or particles of boron, a refractory metal, or a refractory metal hydride; organic compound having a char yield of at least 60% by weight or a thermoset made from the organic compound; and a reinforcing material. The metal and organic are combined with the reinforcing material. The mixture is heated for make a ceramic having nanoparticles of a boron or refractory metal nitride, boride, or carbide; a reinforcing material; and a carbonaceous matrix. The ceramic is not a powder.