In a piezoelectric ceramic composition including potassium sodium niobate, a transition temperature at which a phase transition between an orthorhombic crystal structure and a tetragonal crystal structure occurs lies in a temperature range of −20° C. or higher and 60° C. or lower. In the piezoelectric ceramic composition, αt/αO is 0.72 or more, where αO represents a coefficient of linear expansion determined when a crystal structure is orthorhombic in the temperature range, and αt represents a coefficient of linear expansion determined when a crystal structure is tetragonal in the temperature range.

A ceramic composition according to an embodiment of the present invention contains: a main phase component represented by CaMgSi.sub.2O.sub.6 or Ba.sub.4(Re.sub.(1-x), Bi.sub.x).sub.9.33Ti.sub.18O.sub.54; and an additive component containing a Li component and a B component, An observation field, a part of a sectional surface of the ceramic composition, is divided into a plurality of unit observation regions. Among all the unit observation regions, those containing no or little sintering agent component are referred to as the main crystal regions. An area percentage of main crystal regions relative to the observation field is 30% or more, the main crystal regions being the unit observation regions containing 0.5% or less by area of the additive component.

Provided are metal oxide varistors comprising a sintered ceramic, in which the ceramic comprises, by weight, about 91.0% to about 97.0% ZnO, at least 0.3% Mn, at least 0.4% Bi, at least 1.0% Sb, and 0.50% or less Co. The metal oxide varistors as disclosed herein may exhibit reduced power dissipation, improved thermal stability, and may be produced at a lower cost relative to conventional MOV devices.

Provided are a Mn—Zn—O sputtering target that can be used for DC sputtering and a production method therefor. The Mn—Zn—O sputtering target has a chemical composition containing Mn, Zn, O, and an element X (X is one or two elements selected from the group consisting of W and Mo). A surface to be sputtered of the target has an arithmetic mean roughness Ra of 1.5 μm or less or a maximum height Ry of 10 μm or less.

A cold storage material particle of an embodiment includes at least one first element selected from the group consisting of a rare earth element, silver (Ag), and copper (Cu) and a second element that is different from the first element and forms a multivalent metal ion in an aqueous solution, in which an atomic concentration of the second element is 0.001 atomic % or more and 60 atomic % or less, and a maximum value of volume specific heat at a temperature of 20K or less is 0.3 J/cm.sup.3.Math.K or more.

The invention relates to a scintillation material of rare earth orthosilicate doped with a strong electron-affinitive element and its preparation method and application thereof. The chemical formula of the scintillation material of rare earth orthosilicate doped with the strong electron-affinitive element is: RE.sub.2(1−x−y+δ/2)Ce.sub.2xM.sub.(2y−δ)Si.sub.(1−δ)M.sub.δO.sub.5. In the formula, RE is rare earth ions and M is strong electron-affinitive doping elements; the value of x is 0<x≤0.05, the value of y is 0<y≤0.015, and the value of δ is 0≤δ≤10−4; and M is selected from at least one of tungsten, lead, molybdenum, tellurium, antimony, bismuth, mercury, silver, nickel, indium, thallium, niobium, titanium, tantalum, tin, cadmium, technetium, zirconium, rhenium, and gallium Ga.

A magnesium-based thermoelectric conversion material made of a sintered compact of a magnesium compound, in which, in a cross section of the sintered compact, a Si-rich metallic phase having a higher Si concentration than in magnesium compound grains is unevenly distributed in a crystal grain boundary between the magnesium compound grains, an area ratio of the Si-rich metallic phase is in a range of 2.5% or more and 10% or less, and a number density of the Si-rich metallic phase having an area of 1 μm.sup.2 or more is in a range of 1,800/mm.sup.2 or more and 14,000/mm.sup.2 or less.

A thermoelectric conversion material is represented by a composition formula Ag.sub.2S.sub.(1-x)Se.sub.x, where x has a value of greater than 0.01 and smaller than 0.6.

Embodiments disclosed herein include potassium sodium niobate (KNN) films and methods of making such films. In an embodiment, a method of forming a potassium sodium niobate (KNN) film comprises preparing a solution comprising water, potassium hexaniobate salts, and sodium hexaniobate salts. In an embodiment, the solution is spin coated onto a substrate to form a film on at least a portion of a surface of the substrate. In an embodiment, the method may further comprise heat treating the film.

A ceramic composition in one embodiment contains, relative to 100 parts by mass of diopside crystal powder, 0.3 to 1.5 parts by mass of a Li component in terms of an oxide thereof and 0.1 to 1 part by mass of a B component in terms of an oxide thereof. In this embodiment, the content of the Li component in terms of an oxide thereof is larger than the content of the B component in terms of an oxide thereof. In this embodiment, a total content of the Li component and the B component is 2.25 parts by mass or less in terms of oxides thereof.