A thermoelectric material of the present invention includes copper, tin, and sulfur, wherein a ratio A/B of the number A of copper atoms to the number B of tin atoms is 0.5 to 2.5 and a content of a metal element other than copper and tin is 5 mol % or less with respect to total metal elements. Additionally, the thermoelectric material of the present invention has a thermal conductivity less than 1.0 W/(m.Math.K) at 200 to 400° C.

Composite nanoparticle compositions and associated nanoparticle assemblies are described herein which, in some embodiments, exhibit enhancements to one or more thermoelectric properties including increases in electrical conductivity and/or Seebeck coefficient and/or decreases in thermal conductivity. In one aspect, a composite nanoparticle composition comprises a semiconductor nanoparticle including a front face and a back face and sidewalls extending between the front and back faces. Metallic nanoparticles are bonded to at least one of the sidewalls establishing a metal-semiconductor junction.

Composite nanoparticle compositions and associated nanoparticle assemblies exhibit enhancements to one or more thermoelectric properties including increases in electrical conductivity and/or Seebeck coefficient and/or decreases in thermal conductivity. A composite nanoparticle composition comprises a semiconductor nanoparticle including a front face and a back face and sidewalls extending between the front and back faces. Metallic nanoparticles are bonded to at least one of the sidewalls establishing a metal-semiconductor junction.

Disclosed are a method for preparing a ceramic material including a compound of a formula of A.sub.2B.sub.xO.sub.y and a ceramic material prepared by the method. The method includes: mixing a first oxide of AO.sub.m and a second oxide of BO.sub.n to obtain a mixture, ball-milling the mixture until a particle size of the mixture is not greater than 1 μm with a medium selected from a group consisting of ethanol, acetone, deionized water and a combination thereof, to obtain a powder, drying the powder at a temperature in a range of 60 to 80° C., and sintering the powder with a laser irradiation having a laser wavelength of 980 nm, an irradiation power ranging from 50 to 1500 W and an irradiation period of 3 s to 8 min to obtain the ceramic material.

The present invention relates to inorganic fibres having a composition comprising: 61.0 to 70.8 wt % SiO.sub.2; 28.0 to 39.0 wt % CaO; 0.10 to 0.85 wt % MgO other components, if any, providing the balance up to 100 wt %,

The sum of SiO.sub.2 and CaO is greater than or equal to 98.8 wt % and the other components comprise less than 0.70 wt % Al.sub.2O.sub.3, if any.

Provided are a slurry of graphene oxides with different degrees of oxidation, a composite film of graphene oxides, and a graphene heat-conducting film. The slurry of the graphene oxides comprises the graphene oxides and a solvent, and the graphene oxides include a strong graphene oxide and a weak graphene oxide, wherein the slurry comprises two graphene oxides with different degrees of oxidation, which can increase a carbon content in the graphene oxide per unit mass, so that the finally obtained graphene heat-conducting film has more carbon.

Provided are a dielectric, a device including the same, and a method of preparing the dielectric. The dielectric material includes a NaNbO.sub.3 ternary material including a perovskite phase with a Sm element substituted into a Na site such that the NaNbO.sub.3 ternary material has a permittivity of 600 or more at 1 kHz, and a temperature coefficient of capacitance (TCC) of about -15% to about 15% in a range of about -55° C. to about +200° C.

The invention relates to an encapsulated metal particle comprising a core encapsulated in a shell, wherein the core comprises a metallic substance, and wherein the shell comprises a insulating substance. The invention also relates to a polymer composition comprising a plurality of the encapsulated metal particles, a mixture comprising a plurality of encapsulated metal particles and plurality of polymer particles, and the use of the encapsulated metal particle as an additive for increasing the thermal conductivity and/or radio frequency (RF) conductivity of a matrix substance such as an adhesive.

An alumina powder containing: a first alumina particle having average particle diameter from 0.1 μm to 1 μm; a second alumina particle having average particle diameter from 1 μm to 10 μm; and a third alumina particle having average particle diameter from 10 μm to 100 μm, wherein the particle diameters are measured using laser light diffraction scattering particle size distribution analyzer, average sphericity of first alumina particle having projected area equivalent circle diameter from 0.1 μm to 1 μm as determined by microscopy is from 0.80 to 0.98, and a ratio of D90/D10 of first alumina particle is from 2.0 to 8.0 wherein the ratio of D90/D10 is a ratio when particle diameter at cumulative value of 10% from fine particle side of cumulative particle size distribution on volume basis is D10 and particle diameter at cumulative value of 90% from fine particle side is D90.

A silicon nitride powder for sintering which, despite of its fine powdery form, shows a very small increase in the oxygen concentration with time and features excellent storage stability. The silicon nitride powder for sintering has a specific surface area of 5 to 30 m.sup.2/g, and is characterized by having a hydrophobicity (M value) of 30 or more and an increase in the oxygen concentration of 0.30% by mass or less after left to stand in the air of a humidity of 90% and 20° C. for 48 hours. The silicon nitride powder for sintering can be obtained by dry-pulverizing aggregated masses of the silicon nitride in an inert atmosphere in the presence of a silane coupling agent.