The present invention provides a honeycomb structured body capable of achieving more effective use of a catalyst in partition walls and having excellent exhaust gas conversion performance. The present invention relates to a honeycomb structured body including: a honeycomb fired body in which multiple through-holes are arranged longitudinally in parallel with one another with a partition wall therebetween, wherein the honeycomb fired body contains ceria-zirconia composite oxide particles and alumina particles, the partition wall of the honeycomb fired body contains macropores having a pore size of 2 to 50 m, and in an electron microscope image of a cross section of the partition wall, the percentage of the area occupied by pores having a pore size of 5 to 15 m is at least 85% of the total area of the macropores.

The invention relates to a wall-flow filter for cleaning exhaust gases from engines, with parallel exhaust gas inlet channels and exhaust gas outlet channels which are closed at alternate ends, said filter additionally comprising catalyst channels which are closed at both ends and contain a catalyst in solid form. The invention also relates to production methods and uses of the filter for cleaning exhaust gases, particularly from diesel engines.

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 m.sup.2 or greater and 3.0 m.sup.2 or less.

A honeycomb structure body has an outer skin, cells arranged in an inside of the outer skin, and partition walls having pores. The partition walls are arranged in the inside of the outer skin. Each of the cells is surrounded by the partition walls. The pores have communicating pores which communicate with each other adjacent cells. Exhaust gas emitted from an engine passes adjacent cells through the communicating pores. The number of the communicating pores is at a density of not less than 18000 [pores/0.25 mm.sup.2] before a catalyst is supported in the pores. An exhaust gas purification filter having the honeycomb structure body with the catalyst is arranged in an exhaust gas pipe to purify exhaust gas containing PM emitted from an engine.

In a porous composite, a base material has a honeycomb structure whose inside is partitioned into a plurality of cells. In the plurality of cells, a plurality of first cells whose one ends in the longitudinal direction are sealed, and a plurality of second cells whose other ends in the longitudinal direction are sealed are arranged alternately. A collection layer covers inner surfaces of the plurality of first cells. An overall Sa that is an arithmetical mean height Sa indicating a surface roughness of a surface of the collection layer in the plurality of first cells is greater than or equal to 0.1 m and less than or equal to 12 m. An overall mean thickness that is a mean thickness of the collection layer in the plurality of first cells is greater than or equal to 10 m and less than or equal to 40 m.

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. In a pore diameter distribution in which a pore diameter and a log differential pore volume measured through mercury porosimetry are respectively represented by a horizontal axis and a vertical axis, the wall portion has a peak in a range in which the pore diameter is greater than or equal to 0.01 m and less than 1 m and a peak in a range in which the pore diameter is greater than or equal to 1 m and less than or equal to 50 m.

A honeycomb filter including: a honeycomb structure having a porous partition wall provided surrounding a plurality of cells; and a plugging portion disposed to seal either one end portion on the inflow or the outflow end face side of the cells, wherein the cell in which the plugging portion is provided at the outflow end face side and the inflow end face side is open is defined as an inflow cell, the cell the plugging portion is provided at the inflow end face side and the outflow end face side is open is defined as an outflow cell, the honeycomb structure further has a trapping layer for the particulate matter on an inner surface side of the partition wall, the trapping layer includes a portion composed of a sintered body of CeO.sub.2 particles on at least a surface layer, and the average particle diameter is 1.1 m or less.

A honeycomb body having intersecting porous walls which includes first through fourth cells, wherein the cells extend from inlet to outlet face and are plugged to define a repeating structural unit with three inlets and one outlet channel. Repeating structural unit includes a first channel including length L.sub.1, width W.sub.2, and area A.sub.1, a second channel including length L.sub.2, the width W.sub.2, and area A.sub.2, a third channel including the length L.sub.1, width W.sub.1, and area A.sub.3, and a fourth channel including the length L.sub.2, the width W.sub.1, and A.sub.4, wherein the first through third channels are inlets and the fourth channel is a rectangular outlet and at least one of W.sub.1>W.sub.2 and L.sub.1L.sub.2, i.e. W.sub.1>W.sub.2, or L.sub.1L.sub.2, or W.sub.1>W.sub.2 and L.sub.1L.sub.2. Repeating structural unit has a quadrilateral outer perimeter. Particulate filters including the honeycomb body, honeycomb extrusion dies, and methods of manufacturing the honeycomb body are provided.

A ceramic honeycomb filter has (a) cross section areas of intake flow paths being larger than those of discharge flow paths; (b) the intake and discharge flow paths having octagonal cross section shapes with four-fold rotation symmetry each obtained by cutting off four corners from a square; (c) the intake and discharge flow paths being alternately arranged in a first direction and a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, such that their opposing sides are parallel; (d) the opening ratio of the intake flow paths being 45-60%; (e) the number of the flow paths per cm.sup.2 being 30-60; (f) the thickness t1 of a cell wall between an intake flow path and a discharge flow path adjacent to that intake flow path being 0.150-0.260 mm; and (g) the thickness t2 of a cell wall between adjacent intake flow paths meeting 1.175<t2/t1<1.6.

An apparatus for exhaust gas purification comprises a filter function. The apparatus includes a gas-permeable substrate which forms a wall-flow filter that forms channels. The channels are sealed at least at one end and exhaust gas is flowable through the channels and gas-permeable channel walls of the channels formed from the substrate. A surface of the substrate is provided with an oxygen-storing coating. The mass of an oxygen-storing material coated on the surface of the substrate on an outflow side is higher than the mass of the oxygen-storing material coated on the surface of the substrate on an inflow side.