activated carbon and a method for manufacturing the same are provided. The activated carbon comprises a carbon aggregate containing a plurality of linear carbons and has a specific surface area of 350 m.sup.2/g or more, and the method comprises pretreating a carbon aggregate precursor by ball milling and reacting the pretreated carbon aggregate precursor with CO.sub.2.

An adsorbent consisting of iron oxyhydroxide, having a high adsorption rate and high adsorption efficiency compared with conventional products. The adsorbent particle is an adsorbent particle having a crystal structure of β-iron oxyhydroxide, having an average crystallite diameter of 10 nm or less as measured by X-ray diffraction, wherein 90% or more of volume of adsorbent particle is constituted of granular crystals having crystal particle diameter of 20 nm or less, or columnar crystals having width of 10 nm or less and length of 30 nm or less. The adsorbent particle have at least either of the following characteristics: (A) the adsorbent particle contains metal element other than iron in amount of 0.1 to 20% by mass with respect to iron element, or (B) the adsorbent particle contains sulfur oxoacid ions in an amount of 0.01 to 20% by mass in terms of sulfur element with respect to iron element.

A positive electrode active material for a lithium ion secondary battery containing lithium composite oxide particles is provided, the lithium composite oxide particles including lithium, nickel, manganese, zirconium, and an additive element M in an amount of substance ratio of Li:Ni:Mn:Zr:M=a:b:c:d:e, wherein 0.95≤a≤1.20, 0.10≤b<0.70, 0.01≤c≤0.50, 0.0003≤d≤0.02, and 0.01≤e≤0.50, and the additive element M is one or more elements selected from Co, W, Mo, V, Mg, Ca, Al, Ti, and Ta. A half-value width FWHM.sub.(003) of a peak of a (003) plane and a half-value width FWHM.sub.(104) of a peak of a (104) plane calculated from an X-ray diffraction pattern in the lithium composite oxide satisfy the relation FWHM.sub.(104)≥FWHM.sub.(003)×2.90−0.10.

A positive electrode active material for a lithium ion secondary battery containing lithium composite oxide particles, the lithium composite oxide particles including lithium (Li), nickel (Ni), manganese (Mn), zirconium (Zr), and an additive element M (M) in an amount of substance ratio of Li:Ni:Mn:Zr:M=a:b:c:d:e, wherein 0.95≤a≤1.20, 0.70≤b≤0.98, 0.01≤c≤0.20, 0.0003≤d≤0.01, and 0.01≤e≤0.20, and the additive element M is one or more elements selected from Co, W, Mo, V, Mg, Ca, Al, Ti, and Ta, wherein, a unit lattice volume V (Å.sup.3) determined from lattice constants a and c that are calculated from an X-ray diffraction pattern in the lithium composite oxide is 117.5 Å.sup.3 or more and 118.0 Å.sup.3 or less, and a ratio I.sub.(003)/I.sub.(104) of a peak strength I.sub.(003) of a (003) plane to a peak strength In.sub.(104) of a (104) plane is 1.70 or more.

Provided is a carbon material for a negative electrode of a lithium ion secondary battery, which has a small particle diameter, high initial charge-discharge efficiency, and a high 2C discharge rate, and achieves both input-output characteristics and durability. Disclosed is a carbon material for a negative electrode of a lithium ion secondary battery, in which a 50% by volume particle diameter in a cumulative frequency distribution is 1.0 μm or more and less than 5.0 μm, a specific surface area by a BET method is 6.5 m.sup.2/g or less, a tap density (D.sub.TAP) is 0.70 g/cm.sup.3 or more, and a Raman R value obtained by Raman spectroscopy is more than 0.100 and less than 0.300, and the carbon material has a carbonaceous film on a surface of graphitized material particles of a mesophase microbead.

The present invention discloses a crystalline aluminum phosphite, a preparation method thereof and an application thereof as or for the preparation of a flame retardant or a flame retardant synergist. The preparation method has the following processes: 1, reacting aluminum hydrogen phosphite with an aluminum-containing compound in water at 80-110° C. to obtain a precipitate in the presence of no strong acid or a small amount of strong acid; 2, washing and filtering the precipitate; 3, drying the precipitate at 100-130° C.; 4, continuously heating the dried solid step by step at a low speed, where the material temperature is increased to not exceeding 350° C. from room temperature at about 5-10 h, with a temperature rise rate not exceeding 5° C./min. Compared with amorphous aluminum hydrogen phosphite, the crystalline aluminum phosphite has a higher thermal decomposition temperature, lower water absorption and weaker acidity, and can be synergistic with diethyl aluminum hypophosphite to achieve better flame retardant property and thus, is used for a halogen-free flame retardant component of high polymer materials.

The cathode active material according to embodiments of the present invention includes a lithium composite oxide particle having a form of secondary particle in which a plurality of primary particle are aggregated, wherein the primary particles respectively include a lithium conduction pathway through which lithium ions are diffused. Wherein the primary particles include a first particle, and the first particle has an angle of 45° to 90° formed by a direction from a center of the first particle to a center of the lithium composite oxide particle and a direction of the lithium conduction pathway included in the first particle, wherein a ratio of the number of the first particles among the primary particles located on a surface of the lithium composite oxide particle is 20% or more.

Method of producing short carbon nanotube fibers from a carbonaceous gas.

Electroconductive two-dimensional particles composed of a layered material having one or more layers, wherein each of the one or more layers is a layer body represented by M.sub.mX.sub.n (M represents at least one group 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 metal; X represents a carbon atom, a nitrogen atom, or a combination thereof; n represents a number from 1 to 4; m represents a number that is larger than n but not larger than 5), and a modification or terminal T (T represents at least one atom or group selected from a hydroxyl group, a fluorine atom, a chlorine atom, an oxygen atom and a hydrogen atom) is present on the surface of the layer body; the Li content is from 0.0001% by mass to 0.0020% by mass; and the average value of the lengths of two-dimensional surfaces of the electroconductive two-dimensional particles is from 1.0 μm to 20 μm.

A nickel manganese cobalt composite hydroxide, which is a precursor of a positive electrode active material, and which is composed of secondary particles to which primary particles containing a nickel, a manganese, and a cobalt are aggregated, or composed of the primary particles and the secondary particles, wherein a sodium content contained in the nickel manganese cobalt composite hydroxide is less than 0.0005% by mass. Also, a ratio of an average particle size of a lithium nickel manganese cobalt composite oxide divided by an average particle size of the nickel manganese cobalt composite hydroxide, which is a precursor, is 0.95 to 1.05, and further, when observing 100 or more particles of the lithium nickel manganese cobalt composite oxide selected randomly by a scanning electron microscope, a number that an aggregation of secondary particles is observed is 5% or less with respect to a total number of observed secondary particles.