A method for preparing a transition-metal adamantane carboxylate salt is presented. The method includes mixing a transition-metal hydroxide and a diamondoid compound having at least one carboxylic acid moiety to form a reactant mixture, where M is a transition metal. Further, the method includes hydrothermally treating the reactant mixture at a reaction temperature for a reaction time to form the transition-metal adamantane carboxylate salt.

According to one embodiment, an active material is provided. The active material includes a lithium niobium composite oxide represented by a general formula Li.sub.xFe.sub.1yM1.sub.yNb.sub.112M2.sub.zO.sub.29 (1) and having an orthorhombic crystal structure. In the general formula (1), 0x23, 0y1 and 0<z6 are satisfied. Each of M1 and M2 independently includes at least one element selected from a group consisting of Fe, Mg, Al, Cu, Mn, Co, Ni, Zn, Sn, Ti, Ta, V, and Mo.

A lithium metal composite oxide into or from which lithium ions are dopable or dedopable, in which the lithium metal composite oxide contains at least nickel and satisfies all of the following requirements of (1) to (3). (1) A BET specific surface area is 1.0 m.sup.2/g or less. (2) When an average secondary particle diameter D.sub.50 is indicated as X m and a calculated particle diameter is indicated as Y m, the ratio (X/Y) is 1.1 or more and 2.9 or less. Here, the calculated particle diameter is calculated by the following method. Calculated particle diameter (Y)=23/(BET specific surface areatap density) (3) The ratio of the amount of residual lithium (mass %) contained in the lithium metal composite oxide to BET specific surface area (m.sup.2/g) (amount of residual lithium/BET specific surface area) is 0.25 or less.

Provided is an inorganic oxide containing Al, Ce and Zr as constituent elements and having a ratio of emission intensity I.sub.A at 420 nm and emission intensity I.sub.B at 470 nm (I.sub.B/I.sub.A) of not more than 1.65 in an emission spectrum obtained when a light at wavelength 200 nm is irradiated.

A dielectric ceramic composition includes a main component of a perovskite type compound represented by a general formula of ABO.sub.3, in which A is an element in an A-site, B is an element in a B-site, and O is an oxygen element. A includes Ba. A further includes at least one of Ca and Sr. B includes Ti. A sintered-body lattice volume obtained by X-ray diffraction method is 64.33 .sup.3 or below.

The present invention is a method of producing silicon compound coated oxide particles in which at least a part of a surface of a metal oxide particle is coated with a silicon compound, wherein wettability and color characteristics are controlled by controlling a ratio of SiOH bonds contained in the silicon compound coated oxide particles. By the present invention, silicon compound coated oxide particles having controlled wettability such as hydrophilicity, water repellency or oil repellency, and controlled color characteristics of either reflectivity, molar absorption coefficient or transmittance can be provided.

A process for preparing a zeolitic material comprising a metal M, having framework type AEI, and having a framework in structure which comprises a tetravalent element Y, a trivalent element X, and oxygen, said process comprising (i) providing a zeolitic of material comprising the metal M, having a framework type other than AEI, and having a framework structure comprising the trivalent element X, and oxygen; (ii) preparing a synthesis mixture comprising the zeolitic material provided in (i), water, a source of the tetravalent element Y, and an AEI framework structure directing agent; (iii) subjecting the synthesis mixture prepared in (ii) to hydrothermal synthesis conditions comprising heating the synthesis mixture to a temperature in the range of from 100 to 200 C. and keeping the synthesis mixture at a temperature in this range under autogenous pressure, obtaining the zeolitic material having framework type AEI; wherein Y is one or more of Si, Ge, Sn, Ti, Zr; wherein X is one or more of Al, B, Ga, In; wherein M is a transition metal of groups 7 to 12 of the periodic table of elements.

A manganese carbide (Mn.sub.4C) magnetic material and a production method therefor are provided. According to one embodiment, the saturation magnetization of the Mn.sub.4C magnetic material increases with increasing temperature, and thus the Mn.sub.4C magnetic material is applicable to fields in which thermally induced magnetization reduction is critical.

Provided are a negative electrode active material for a secondary battery, which suppresses a dispersal phenomenon of a negative electrode active material during charging/discharging by controlling a lattice mismatch ratio of an amorphous matrix layer to a silicon layer in a silicon-based negative electrode active material.

The present invention relates to silicon-compound-coated fine metal particles, with which surfaces of fine metal particles, composed of at least one type of metal element or metalloid element, are at least partially coated with a silicon compound and a ratio of SiOH bonds contained in the silicon-compound-coated fine metal particles is controlled to be 0.1% or more and 70% or less. By the present invention, silicon-compound-coated fine metal particles that are controlled in dispersibility and other properties can be provided by controlling the ratio of SiOH bonds or the ratio of SiOH bonds/SiO bonds contained in the silicon-compound-coated fine metal particles. By controlling the ratio of SiOH bonds or the ratio of SiOH bonds/SiO bonds, a composition that is more appropriate for diversifying applications and targeted properties of silicon-compound-coated fine metal particles than was conventionally possible can be designed easily.