Methods are described to make strong, tough, and lightweight whisker-reinforced glass-ceramic composites through a self-toughening structure generated by viscous reaction sintering of a complex mixture of oxides. The invention further relates to strong, tough, and lightweight glass-ceramic composites that can be used as proppants and for other uses.

Provided is a zinc oxide-based sputtering target that enables production of a zinc oxide-based sputtered film having higher transparency and electrical conductivity. The zinc oxide-based sputtering target of the present invention is composed of a zinc oxide-based sintered body including zinc oxide crystal grains as a main phase and spinel phases as a dopant-containing grain boundary phase, and the zinc oxide-based sputtering target has a degree of (002) orientation of ZnO of 80% or greater at a sputtering surface, a density of the zinc oxide-based sintered body of 5.50 g/cm.sup.3 or greater, the number of the spinel phases per area of 20 counts/100 μm.sup.2 or greater, and a spinel phase distribution index of 0.40 or less.

An elongate shaped abrasive particle comprises an elongate shaped ceramic body having opposed first and second ends joined to each other by at least two longitudinal sidewalls. At least one of the at least two longitudinal sidewalls is concave along its length. At least one of the first and second ends is a fractured surface. Methods of making elongate shaped abrasive particles and abrasive articles including them are also disclosed.

The present disclosure provides a visible light activated photocatalytic tile, comprising a porous ceramic tile; and a photocatalytic layer formed on one surface of the tile with a coating composition comprising an aqueous solvent and visible light activated photocatalytic particles.

A lithium ion-conducting compound, having a garnet-like crystal structure, and having the general formula: Li.sub.n[A.sub.(3-a′-a″)A′.sub.(a′)A″.sub.(a″)][B.sub.(2-b′-b″)B′.sub.(b′)B″.sub.(b″)][C′.sub.(c′)C″.sub.(c″)]O.sub.12, where A, A′, A″ stand for a dodecahedral position of the crystal structure, where A stands for La, Y, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm and/or Yb, A′ stands for Ca, Sr and/or Ba, A″ stands for Na and/or K, 0<a′<2 and 0<a″<1, where B, B′, B″ stand for an octahedral position of the crystal structure, where B stands for Zr, Hf and/or Sn, B′ stands for Ta, Nb, Sb and/or Bi, B″ stands for at least one element selected from the group including Te, W and Mo, 0<b′<2 and 0<b″<2, where C and C″ stand for a tetrahedral position of the crystal structure, where C stands for Al and Ga, C″ stands for Si and/or Ge, 0<c′<0.5 and 0<c″<0.4, and where n=7+a′+2.Math.a″−b′−2.Math.b″−3.Math.c′−4.Math.c″ and 5.5<n<6.875.

To a co-precipitating aqueous solution, aqueous solutions containing (a) Tb ions, (b) at least one other rare earth ions selected from the group consisting of Y ions and lanthanoid rare earth ions (excluding Tb ions), (c) Al ions and (d) Sc ions are added; the resulting solution is stirred at a liquid temperature of 50° C. or less to induce a co-precipitate of the components (a), (b), (c) and (d); the co-precipitate is filtered, heated and dehydrated; and the co-precipitate is fired thereafter at from 1,000° C. to 1,300° C., thereby forming a sinterable garnet-type complex oxide powder.

A process for producing a porous alpha-alumina catalyst support, comprising i) preparing a precursor material comprising, based on inorganic solids content, at least 50 wt.-% of a transition alumina having a loose bulk density of at most 600 g/L, a pore volume of at least 0.6 mL/g and a median pore diameter of at least 15 nm; and at most 30 wt.-% of an alumina hydrate; ii) forming the precursor material into shaped bodies; and iii) calcining the shaped bodies to obtain the porous alpha-alumina catalyst support. The catalyst support has a high overall pore volume, thus allowing for impregnation with a high amount of silver, while keeping its surface area sufficiently large so as to provide optimal dispersion of catalytically active species, in particular metal species. The invention further relates to a shaped catalyst body for producing ethylene oxide by gas-phase oxidation of ethylene, comprising at least 15 wt.-% of silver, relative to the total weight of the catalyst, deposited on a porous alpha-alumina catalyst support obtained in the process described above. The invention also relates to a process for preparing a shaped catalyst body as described above comprising impregnating a porous alpha-alumina catalyst support obtained in the process described above with a silver impregnation solution, preferably under reduced pressure; and optionally subjecting the impregnated porous alumina support to drying; and b) subjecting the impregnated porous alpha-alumina support to a heat treatment; wherein steps a) and b) are optionally repeated. The invention further relates to a process for producing ethylene oxide by gas-phase oxidation of ethylene, comprising reacting ethylene and oxygen in the presence of a shaped catalyst body as described above.

Disclosed is a honeycomb filter for collecting fine particles that includes a wall portion formed from a base material containing ceria-zirconia composite oxide and an inorganic binder. The wall portion has a gas permeability coefficient of 1.0 μm.sup.2 or greater and 3.0 μm.sup.2 or less.

A slurry or slip composed of a dispersion medium and a dispersoid including sinterable raw material powder containing a complex oxide powder represented by the following formula (1):
(Tb.sub.1-x-yR.sub.xSc.sub.y).sub.3(Al.sub.1-zSc.sub.z).sub.5O.sub.12  (1)
wherein R is yttrium and/or lutetium, 0.05≤x<0.45, 0<y<0.1, 0.5<1-x-y<0.95, and 0.004<z<0.2 is prepared; the slurry or slip is subsequently enclosed in a mold container to be subjected to solid-liquid separation by centrifugal casting to mold a cast compact; the cast compact is dried thereafter; a dried compact is degreased; a degreased compact is sintered thereafter; and a sintered body is further subjected to a hot isostatic pressing treatment to obtain the transparent ceramic material composed of the sintered body of garnet-type rare earth complex oxide represented by the formula (1).

Provided is a method for manufacturing a synthetic gemstone from a body tissue of a person or an animal, the method including: extracting a biomaterial from the body tissue; manufacturing a raw material mixture by mixing the biomaterial with a gemstone material; and melting the raw material mixture to form a synthetic gemstone on a crystal seed.