[Technical Problem]To provide diamond grits with enhanced friability, and method for the production comprising in combination internal microcracks within the diamond particle and surface irregularities, with or without a layer of non-diamond carbon covering the particle surface.

[Solution to Problem]

The diamond grits of the invention consist of diamond particles synthesized by a static ultrahigh pressure-high temperature process, comprising both microcracks generated within the particles due to the effect of heating, and surface irregularities formed on the particles by oxidizing etching at elevated temperatures.

The production method comprises providing a starting volume of diamond particles, from a synthesizing process in a static ultrahigh pressure-high temperature process, subjecting said diamond particles to a heating process in intimate contact with an oxidizing etchant at a temperature of 800° C. or higher, generating thus microcracks within the diamond particles and also causing to corrode the particle surface thus forming increased surface irregularities, and recovering the treated diamond particles.

Silicon-carbon composite materials and related processes are disclosed that overcome the challenges for providing amorphous nano-sized silicon entrained within porous carbon. Compared to other, inferior materials and processes described in the prior art, the materials and processes disclosed herein find superior utility in various applications, including energy storage devices such as lithium ion batteries.

A method for ammonia decomposition to produce hydrogen, the method comprising the steps of introducing an ammonia stream to a reactor, wherein the ammonia stream comprises ammonia, wherein the reactor comprises a cobalt-based catalyst, the cobalt-based catalyst comprising 15 wt % and 70 wt % of cobalt, 5 wt % and 45 wt % of cerium, and 0.4 wt % and 0.5 wt % barium, wherein a remainder of weight of the cobalt-based catalyst is oxygen; contacting the ammonia in the ammonia stream with the cobalt-based catalyst, wherein the cobalt-based catalyst is operable to catalyze an ammonia decomposition reaction; catalyzing the ammonia decomposition reaction to cause the ammonia decomposition in the presence of the cobalt-based catalyst to produce hydrogen; and withdrawing a product stream from the reactor, the product stream comprising hydrogen.

The composite particle of the present invention includes an alumina particle having a card-house structure which is formed of three or more pieces of plate-like alumina and in which the pieces of plate-like alumina are fixed to each other; and an inorganic coating part provided on a surface of the plate-like alumina.

The present invention relates to a carbonaceous material which is derived from a plant, having a specific surface area of 1800 to 3000 m.sup.2/g as measured by a BET method, a hydrogen element content of 0.42% by mass or less and an oxygen element content of 1.5% by mass or less.

Fumed silica powder, surface treated with a surface treatment agent selected from the group consisting of organosilanes, silazanes, acyclic polysiloxanes, cyclic polysiloxanes, and mixtures thereof, wherein the powder has: a) a number of silanol groups relative to BET surface area d.sub.SiOH of at least 0.85 SiOH/nm.sup.2, as determined by reaction with lithium aluminium hydride; b) a methanol wettability of more than 40% by volume of methanol in methanol-water mixture; c) a tamped density of not more than 200 g/L.

The present invention is polishing particles for polishing a synthetic quartz glass substrate. The polishing particles contain cerium-based polishing particles and have a breaking strength, which is measured by a compression tester, of 30 MPa or more. This provides polishing particles for polishing a synthetic quartz glass substrate while sufficiently reducing generation of defects due to polishing.

Provided is a method for producing a porous metal oxide. The method includes: preparing a slurry by mixing a metal source, a pore forming agent and an aqueous solvent; drying the slurry to obtain a metal oxide precursor; and sintering the metal oxide precursor to generate a porous metal oxide. The metal source is an organometallic compound or hydrolyzate thereof containing a metal that makes up the porous metal oxide; the pore forming agent is an inorganic compound that generates a gas by decomposing at a temperature equal to or lower than a temperature at which the metal oxide precursor is sintered; and the slurry is prepared using 50 parts by weight or more of the pore forming agent with respect to 100 parts by weight of the metal source.

Provided is a positive electrode active material for a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery, the active material including a lithium-transition metal composite oxide containing lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese, having a layered structure, having a ratio D.sub.50/D.sub.SEM of from 1 to 4, and having a ratio of a number of moles of nickel to a total number of moles of metals other than lithium of greater than 0.8 and less than 1, a ratio of a number of moles of cobalt to the total number of moles of metals other than lithium of less than 0.2, a ratio of a number of moles of manganese to the total number of moles of metals other than lithium of less than 0.2, and a ratio of the number of moles of manganese to a sum of the number of moles of cobalt and the number of moles of manganese of less than 0.58.

A method and system for batch manufacturing aluminum chlorohydrate (ACH) utilizing a reactor tank. The method comprises conducting two consecutive batch manufacturing processes, each batch manufacturing process producing aluminum chlorohydrate (ACH) by reacting solid-state aluminum metal pieces with an acid source in a reactor tank. Proximate the end of a first of the two batch manufacturing processes, after the aluminum chlorohydrate (ACH) being produced in that batch has reached a predetermined basicity level, a majority of the produced aluminum chlorohydrate (ACH) is withdrawn from the reactor tank but a heel-portion of the produced aluminum chlorohydrate (ACH) is retained in the reactor tank. The heel-portion comprises a sufficient amount of the produced aluminum chlorohydrate (ACH) to submerge therein a majority of unreacted solid-state aluminum metal pieces retained in the reactor tank at the time that produced aluminum chlorohydrate (ACH) is withdrawn from the reactor tank.