There is provided synthetic proppants, and in particular polysilocarb derived ceramic proppants. There is further provided hydraulic fracturing treatments utilizing these proppants, and methods of enhance hydrocarbon recovery.

A ceramic deep-frying device capable of withstanding high temperatures and releasing far-infrared energy is made by grinding and mixing mullite, spodumene, energy ceramic material, ball clay, and kaolin clay into clay blank; molding the blank into ceramic green body; and sintering the green body at 1250-1320 C. for 18-24 hours. The device is completely immersed in the oil in a deep-frying vessel while leaving a gap between the device and heating pipe in the vessel or the inner bottom wall of the vessel, for enabling the oil to circulate through the through holes in the device due to temperature difference in the oil, causing the energy ceramic material to release anions and far-infrared rays that decrease van der Waals forces between oil molecules, and hence split, the oil molecules, thereby extending the service life of the oil, shortening the deep-frying time required, and lowering the oil content of deep-fried food.

A porous fiber preform enclosed within a mold may be melt infiltrated by pouring a molten material through an inlet of the mold, the porous fiber preform comprising ceramic fibers. A ceramic matrix composite component comprising the ceramic fibers may be formed by solidifying the molten material that is in the mold and in the porous fiber preform.

A method of controllably coating a fiber preform has been developed. The method includes infiltrating a fiber preform with a first solvent to form a solvent-filled preform. After the infiltration, a slurry is applied to one or more outer surfaces of the solvent-filled preform to form a slurry coating thereon. The slurry coating comprises particulate solids dispersed in a second solvent having a vapor pressure higher than that of the first solvent. The slurry coating and the solvent-filled preform are dried. During drying, the second solvent evaporates from the slurry coating before the first solvent evaporates from the solvent-filled preform. The slurry coating dries to form a porous surface coating comprising the particulate solids on the one or more outer surfaces of the solvent-filled preform. The drying of the solvent-filled preform continues after formation of the porous surface coating to remove the first solvent.

A method of making a refractory article having excellent high-temperature thermal shock resistance and creep resistance is provided. The method includes the step of providing a refractory composition primarily composed of chamotte having controlled particle sizes. The refractory composition may also include mullite, fused silica, calcined alumina and microsilica having controlled particle sizes, and further includes an aqueous colloidal silica binder. The refractory composition is then formed into a refractory article, which is dried and hardened.

Composite ceramic materials are disclosed herein which comprise two or more crystalline phases, wherein a first crystalline phase comprises a first refractory material having a first melting point, and a second crystalline phase comprises a second refractory material having a second melting point which is lower than the first melting point, and the second crystalline phase comprises large domain sizes of the second refractory material. Articles comprising such a composite ceramic material, such as honeycomb bodies, catalytic substrates, and particulate filters, are also disclosed herein, in addition to methods of manufacture thereof.

A method for applying a coating 1 to a surface 2 of a mullite material 3 is specified, which comprises pretreating the surface 2 of the mullite material 3 by means of a plasma-chemical process in which molecular hydrogen is excited in such a way that plasma-activated hydrogen is produced S1, and applying an aluminum oxide-containing layer 4 by means of a PVD process to the pretreated surface 2 of the mullite material 3 S2. Furthermore, a mullite material 3 with a coating and a gas turbine component with such a mullite material 3 are specified.

An alumina porous body made up by binding aggregate alumina particles to each other, the aggregate alumina particles being bound to each other by a compound comprising yttrium silicate synthesized from mullite and Y.sub.2O.sub.3; and a two-layer structure ceramic porous body with an inorganic porous film formed on the alumina porous body.

Providing a method of modifying refractory particles used to produce a casting mold by using a furan resin as a binder, so as to effectively improve a strength of the casting mold and to reduce a required amount of the binder. An artificial aggregate which is artificially produced and which has an apparent porosity of not more than 5% is used as the refractory particles, and the artificial aggregate is subjected to a heat treatment at a temperature of 400-1500 C. for not shorter than one hour in a heating atmosphere having an oxygen concentration of not higher than 15%.

A lightweight high-strength ceramsite, comprising solid raw materials and activator as the raw materials, which can be respectively expressed in parts by weight, the solid raw materials: 100 parts, the activator: 1-15 parts; wherein said solid raw materials comprise fly ash: 100 parts, high-alumina fly ash, bauxite and red mud: 6-18 parts, silica fume: 1-5 parts, surfactant: 0.1-3 parts, plasticizer: 6-24 parts; and said activator comprises alkali metal hydroxide: 5-20 parts and alkali metal silicate: 80-95 parts. The lightweight high-strength ceramsite product prepared has a density level of 700-1100 kg/m3 and cylindrical compressive strength of 10-20 MPa, and thus is not susceptible to damage.