A metallurgical vessel structure and method is provided for producing low-impurity Magnesia-Carbon reclaimed aggregate suitable for reuse in the production of high purity Magnesia-Carbon refractory. A metallurgical vessel is assembled with a non-reactive or chemically similar backup lining. The entire height of the working lining wall is Magnesia-Carbon brick suitable for reuse. The working lining is exposed to a metal making high temperature process, and the working lining is sequentially demolished. Due to the assembly of vessel, metallurgical practice, and ease of demolishing the vessel, there is little to no need for sorting, such that the used Magnesia-Carbon brick are easily converted into low impurity Magnesia-Carbon reclaimed aggregate. A refractory composed of low-impurity Magnesia aggregate reclaimed from the method is also contemplated.

Disclosed is a method of fabricating an anode for a lithium-ion battery, comprising the steps of: mixing a silicon/graphite/carbon material, one or more linear polymers, one or more conductive polymers, one or more self-healing polymers, and one or more rubber polymers to produce a slurry; coating the slurry onto a metallic member; and drying the metallic member with coated slurry to form the anode. Also disclosed is an anode and a lithium-ion battery. Also disclosed is a multi-functional polymer binder including one or more linear polymers, one or more conductive polymers, one or more self-healing polymers, and one or more rubber polymers.

Coke including additives that are accumulated at the yield points or in the regions surrounded by the yield points. For homogeneous distribution, the additives are continuously dosed into the delayed coker during the filling time. The dosing can be carried out by powdery blowing with an inert gas (nitrogen) or also distributed in a slurry consisting of the reaction components and a partial flow of the coker feed (vacuum resid, pytar, decant oil or coal-tar distillates). According to an advantageous form of embodiment, the additives may optionally have a diameter of between 0.05 mm and 5 mm, preferably between 1 mm and 3 mm. Advantageously, the additives can be selected from at least one of acetylene coke, fluid coke, flexi coke, shot coke, carbon black, non-graphitisable carbons (chars), non-graphitic anthracite, silicon carbide, titanium carbide, titanium diboride or mixtures thereof.

The present invention addresses the problem of providing: a porous carbon structure that has a high micropore volume and can be self-contained; a manufacturing method therefor; a positive electrode material using the same; and a battery (particularly an air battery) using the same. The present invention is a porous carbon structure that is for a positive electrode for an air battery and has voids and a skeleton formed by incorporating carbon, the porous carbon structure satisfying all of the following conditions (a) to (d). (a) The t-plot external specific surface area is within the range of 300m.sup.2/g to 1600m.sup.2/g; (b) the total volume of micropores having a diameter of lnm to 200 nm is within the range of 1.2 cm.sup.3/g to 7.0cm.sup.3/g; (c) the total volume of micropores having a diameter of lnm to 1000 nm is within the range of 2.3cm3/g to 10.0 cm.sup.3/g; and (d) the overall porosity is within the range of 80% to 99%.

A monolithic carbon foam formed of fused onion-like carbon (OLC) nanoparticles, in which the monolithic carbon foam contains interconnected pores, has a volumetric micropore surface area of 200 m.sup.2/cc-600 m.sup.2/cc, and has an electrical conductivity of 20 cm- 140 S/cm. Also disclosed are a fractal carbon foam prepared from the monolithic carbon foam, methods of preparing both foams, and supercapacitors constructed therefrom. Specifically, the methods of preparing the foams comprising, inter alia, spark plasma sintering the OLC nanoparticles at a pressure of 30 MPa-1000 MPa and a temperature of 300° C.-800° C. for 2 seconds-30 minutes.

A method for preparing a carbon/boron carbide composite material includes the following steps (A) providing a carbon compound, a carbon fiber, a boron compound and a binder to perform a pretreatment mixing procedure to form a precursor; (B) putting the precursor into a spray granulator for performing a granulation process and mixing the precursor to form an injection material with a uniform composition; (C) feeding the injection material into an injection molding machine for performing a compression molding process, thereby forming a carbon compound/boron compound green body; and (D) subjecting the carbon compound/boron compound green body to a two-stage heat treatment process to obtain the carbon/boron carbide composite material.

A reinforced composite comprises: a reinforcement material comprising one or more of the following: a carbon fiber based reinforcing material; a fiberglass based reinforcing material; a metal based reinforcing material; or a ceramic based reinforcing material; and a carbon composite; wherein the carbon composite comprises carbon and a binder containing one or more of the following: SiO.sub.2; Si; B; B.sub.2O.sub.3; a metal; or an alloy of the metal; and wherein the metal is one or more of the following: aluminum; copper; titanium; nickel; tungsten; chromium; iron; manganese; zirconium; hafnium; vanadium; niobium; molybdenum; tin; bismuth; antimony; lead; cadmium; or selenium.

Methods, processes, systems, devices and apparatus are provided for additive manufacture resulting in the 3D printing of ceramic materials and components with a thickness greater than three millimeters (3 mm). A sulfur-free 3D printable formulation comprises a liquid inorganic polymer resin using Stereolithograpy (SLA) printers and Digital Light Processing (DLP) curing of the polymer resin via the chemical bonding of the materials rather than sintering. Thus, the process has shorter manufacturing intervals, significantly lower energy use and produces larger scale ceramic components having less linear shrinkage, less mass loss and high ceramic yield with no corrosive sulfur compounds present in the ceramic component.

A method of fabricating a carbon-carbon composite includes mixing a carbon-based matrix precursor with a carbon nanomaterial additive forming a polymeric matrix impregnated with the carbon nanomaterial additive, heating the impregnated polymeric matrix under an inert atmosphere, with temperatures ranging between 350-1100° C. for carbonization followed by graphitization at a temperature greater than 1800° C. The matrix precursor may be a graphitizing or non-graphitizing material. The additive may present basal or edge site carbon atoms or a combination of both. As a result, a carbon-carbon composite composed of the matrix and additive is formed by templating or bond formation, wherein at least 1-D nano-scale or micro-scale structural changes begins at the interface between the matrix and additive and propagates outward from the interface into the matrix, thus adjusting or altering the nano- or micro-structures in the matrix that would not naturally occur in the absence of the additive.

A polycrystalline diamond structure comprises a first region and a second region adjacent the first region, the second region being bonded to the first region by intergrowth of diamond grains. The first region comprises a plurality of alternating strata or layers, each or one or more strata or layers in the first region having a thickness in the range of around 5 to 300 microns. The polycrystalline diamond (PCD) structure has a diamond content of at most about 95 percent of the volume of the PCD material, a binder content of at least about 5 percent of the volume of the PCD material, and one or more of the layers or strata in the first region comprise and/or the second region comprises diamond grains having a mean diamond grain contiguity of greater than about 60 percent and a standard deviation of less than about 2.2 percent. There is also disclosed a method of making such a polycrystalline diamond structure.