The present disclosure relates to porous ceramic compositions and porous ceramic articles, such as honeycomb structure bodies and porous ceramic filters. In various embodiments, a particulate filter is disclosed herein; in some of these embodiments, the particulate filter is a gasoline particulate filter (GPF) and is suitable for use with a gasoline engine and treating its exhaust, and in some of the embodiments, the particulate filter is a diesel particulate filter (DPF) and is suitable for use with a diesel engine and treating its exhaust.

A honeycomb structure includes honeycomb segments each having a porous partition wall defining a plurality of cells, and includes a porous bonding layer containing a crystalline anisotropic ceramic and disposed so as to bond side surfaces of the honeycomb segments to each other. A ratio of a pore volume (cc/g) of a fine pore defined as a pore in the bonding layer having a pore diameter of 10 μm or more and less than 50 μm with respect to a pore volume (cc/g) of a coarse pore defined as a pore in the bonding layer having a pore diameter of 50 μm or more and 300 μm or less is from 2.0 to 3.5, the pore volume of the fine pore is from 0.15 to 0.4 cc/g, and the pore volume of the coarse pore is from 0.05 to 0.25 cc/g.

In a porous body, a surface layer thickness Ts takes a relatively small value satisfying P≧0.54 Ts (formula (1)), the surface layer thickness Ts being derived by a microstructure analysis using the porous-body data that is prepared through three-dimensional scanning of a region including a surface (inflow plane 61) of the porous body. Here, P denotes a porosity [%] of the porous body, and 0%<P<100% and 0 μm<Ts are assumed. The surface layer thickness Ts is derived as a distance in a thickness direction (X direction) between a surface-layer region start plane 92 in which a straight-pore opening ratio becomes 98% or less for the first time and a surface-layer region end plane 93 in which the straight-pore opening ratio becomes 1% or less for the first time.

A porous ceramic honeycomb body (10) including intersecting walls that form channels (22) extending axially from a first end face to a second end face and layered plugs (62) comprised of a first layer (64) disposed on channel walls and a second layer (66) disposed inward toward an axial center of each respective channel on the first layer. The plugs seal at least one of a first portion of the channels at the first end face and a second portion of channels at the second end face of the porous ceramic honeycomb body.

A honeycomb structure comprising: a honeycomb structure body that includes a plurality of porous partition walls and intersection parts, and a catalyst layer, wherein the porosity of the partition wall is 20 to 70%, the average pore diameter of the pores in the partition wall is 1 to 60 μm, a plurality of the partition walls includes a notched partition wall having a recessed part in which at least one end is notched, the ratio of the notched partition wall in the partition walls is 1 to 100%, the recessed part of the notched partition wall has a depth of 10 to 200% of the standard length, and the recessed part of the notched partition wall is a part having a width of 33 to 100% of the standard width.

A honeycomb structure includes a honeycomb structure body including porous partition walls defining a plurality of cells serving as fluid passages extending from an inflow end face to an outflow end face. A porosity of the partition walls is from 45 to 65%, an open frontal area of pores having an equivalent circle diameter of 10 um or more is from 20 to 40%, a pore density of pores having an equivalent circle diameter of 10 μm or more is from 350 to 1,000 pores/mm.sup.2 and a median opening diameter of the pores having an equivalent circle diameter of 10 μm or more is from 40 to 60 μm, where the median opening diameter is the median value of the equivalent circle diameters.

A plugged honeycomb structure has a plurality of cells defined by partition walls to become through channels for fluid, one end of each of the predetermined cells is plugged by a plugging member, the other end of each of the residual cells is plugged by the plugging member, the partition wall is made of a cordierite component as a main component, and a value obtained by dividing Young's modulus of a plugging structure portion formed by the partition walls and the plugging member by Young's modulus of a cell structure portion formed by the partition walls is in a range of 1.05 to 2.00.

A plugged honeycomb structure includes a honeycomb structure body, and a plurality of plugging portions, the honeycomb structure body further includes pass-through hole portions each of which is formed in at least a part of a partition wall intersection portion in which the partition walls intersect in one end face and each of which interconnects a pair of cells facing each other at a position corresponding to the partition wall intersection portion to enable pass-through of a fluid, and a value obtained by dividing a diameter of a first virtual inscribed circle inscribed at a position of a minimum hole width of the pass-through hole portion by a diameter of a second virtual inscribed circle inscribed at a position of a minimum plugging width between the plugging portions facing each other is in a range of 0.05 to 0.74.

A plugged honeycomb segment includes a honeycomb segment having a quadrangular prism shape which includes porous partition walls arranged to surround a plurality of cells and an outermost circumferential wall, and a plugging portion, wherein a porosity of the partition walls is 30 to 70%, in a cross section orthogonal to the cell extending direction, an inflow cell surrounded by the partition walls is a hexagon, and an outflow cell is a square, one outflow cell is surrounded by four inflow cells, the cell located at the outermost circumference includes a complete cell and an incomplete cell, and a thickness of the outermost circumferential wall in contact with the incomplete cell (T1), a thickness of the outermost circumferential wall in contact with the complete cell (T2), and a thickness of the partition walls (WT), satisfy 0.200 mm<T1<T2−(½×WT) and T2≤0.700 mm.

A honeycomb filter includes a honeycomb structure having a porous partition wall disposed to surround a plurality of cells; and a plugging portion provided at one end of the cell, wherein the honeycomb structure has an inflow side region including a range of up to at least 30% with respect to the total length of the honeycomb structure with the inflow end face as the starting point and an outflow side region including a range of up to at least 20% with respect to the total length of the honeycomb structure with the outflow end face as the starting point, in the extending direction of the cell of the honeycomb structure, an average pore diameter of the partition wall in the inflow side region is 15 to 20 μm and an average pore diameter of the partition wall in the outflow side region is 9 to 14 μm.