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.

A sulfide solid electrolyte, which is able to adjust the morphology unavailable traditionally, or is readily adjusted so as to have a desired morphology, the sulfide solid electrolyte having a volume-based average particle diameter measured by laser diffraction particle size distribution measurement of 3 μm or more and a specific surface area measured by the BET method of 20 m.sup.2/g or more; and a method of treating a sulfide solid electrolyte including the sulfide solid electrolyte being subjected to at least one mechanical treatment selected from disintegration and granulation.

Surface-modified zinc oxide particles which have a silane coupling agent having an alkoxy group on surfaces thereof, in which d50 when measured with a laser diffraction/scattering type particle size distribution-measuring instrument by the following measurement method is 4 μm or less. (Measurement method) 10 g of the surface-modified zinc oxide particles, 88 g of cyclopentasiloxane, and 2 g of polyglyceryl-3 polydimethylsiloxyethyl dimethicone are mixed to obtain a liquid mixture, a dispersion treatment is performed on the obtained liquid mixture at 9,500 rpm for 5 minutes using a homogenizer to obtain a liquid dispersion, the liquid dispersion is diluted with cyclopentasiloxane so that a content of the surface-modified zinc oxide particles in the obtained liquid dispersion is 0.01% by mass to produce a measurement solution, and d50 is measured with the laser diffraction/scattering type particle size distribution-measuring instrument using the obtained measurement solution.

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.

The present invention relates to composite particles containing silicon and carbon, wherein a domain size region of vacancies of 2 nm or less is 44% by volume or more and 70% by volume or less when volume distribution information of domain sizes obtained by fitting a small-angle X-ray scattering spectrum of the composite particles with a spherical model in a carbon-vacancy binary system is accumulated in ascending order, and a true density calculated by dry density measurement by a constant volume expansion method using helium gas is 1.80 g/cm.sup.3 or more and 2.20 g/cm.sup.3 or less.

A filter medium of the present invention includes a porous carbon material having a value of a specific surface area by a nitrogen BET method of 1×10.sup.2 m.sup.2/g or more, a volume of fine pores by a BJH method of 0.3 cm.sup.3/g or more, and a particle size of 75 μm or more, alternatively, a porous carbon material having a value of a specific surface area by a nitrogen BET method of 1×10.sup.2 m.sup.2/g or more, a total of volumes of fine pores having a diameter of from 1×10.sup.−9 m to 5×10.sup.−7 m, obtained by a non-localized density functional theory method, of 1.0 cm.sup.3/g or more, and a particle size of 75 μm or more.

A process for producing a particulate TiO.sub.2 includes supplementing metatitanic acid with an alkali compound in a quantity of 1200 ppm to 2400 ppm of alkali, with a phosphorus compound in a quantity of 0.1 wt.-% to 0.3 wt.-% by weight of P, expressed as phosphorus, and with an aluminum compound in a quantity of 1 ppm to 1000 ppm of Al, expressed as Al, to obtain a mixture. The quantity of the alkali compound, of the phosphorus compound, and of the aluminum compound are with respect to the TiO.sub.2 content. The mixture is calcined at a constant temperature of 940° C. to 1020° C. until a numerical fraction X.sub.50 of TiO.sub.2 has a primary crystallite size of at least 200 nm, to obtain a calcined mixture. The calcined mixture is cooled to obtain a cooled calcined mixture. The cooled calcined mixture is grinded to obtain the particulate TiO.sub.2.

This application provides a positive active material, a positive electrode plate, an electrochemical energy storage apparatus, and an apparatus. The positive active material is Li.sub.xNi.sub.yCo.sub.zM.sub.kMe.sub.pO.sub.rA.sub.m, or Li.sub.xNi.sub.yCo.sub.zM.sub.kMe.sub.pO.sub.rA.sub.m with a coating layer on its surface; and the positive active material is single crystal or quasi-single crystal particles, and a particle size D.sub.n10 of the positive active material satisfies: 0.3 μm≤D.sub.n10≤2 μm. In this application, particle morphology of the positive active material and an amount of micro powder in the positive active material are properly controlled, to effectively reduce side reactions between the positive active material and an electrolyte solution, decrease gas production of the electrochemical energy storage apparatus, and improve storage performance of the electrochemical energy storage apparatus without deteriorating an energy density, cycle performance, and rate performance of the electrochemical energy storage apparatus.

Compounds that can be used as cathode active materials for lithium ion batteries are described. In some embodiments, the cathode active material includes the compound Li.sub.xNi.sub.aM.sub.bN.sub.cO.sub.2 where M is selected from Mn, Ti, Zr, Ge, Sn, Te and a combination thereof; N is selected from Mg, Be, Ca, Sr, Ba, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, and a combination thereof; 0.9<x<1.1; 0.7<a<1; 0<b<0.3; 0<c<0.3; and a+b+c=1. Other cathode active materials, precursors, and methods of manufacture are presented.

Particles with suitable properties may be generated using systems and methods provided herein. The particles may include carbon particles.