A process and a plant produce hollow microspheres made of glass. According to the process an aqueous suspension is prepared from starting materials containing glass powder and water glass, feedstock particles having a diameter between 5 ?m and 300 ?m, in particular between 5 ?m and 100 ?m, being produced from the suspension. The feedstock particles are mixed with a pulverulent release agent made of aluminum hydroxide in an intensive mixer. The mixture of feedstock particles and release agent is subsequently introduced into a firing chamber of a furnace. The feedstock particles expand in the firing chamber, at a firing temperature which exceeds the softening temperature of the glass powder, to form the hollow microspheres.

A method of manufacturing a polarizing glass sheet includes subjecting, while heating, a glass preform sheet containing metal halide particles to down-drawing, to thereby provide a glass member having stretched metal halide particles dispersed in an aligned manner in a glass matrix, and subjecting the glass member to reduction treatment to reduce the stretched metal halide particles, to thereby provide a polarizing glass sheet. A shape of the glass preform sheet during the down-drawing satisfies a relationship of the following expression:
L.sub.1/W.sub.11.0
where L.sub.1 represents a length between a portion in which a width of the glass preform sheet has changed to 0.8 times an original width and a portion in which the width of the glass preform sheet has changed to 0.2 times the original width W.sub.0, and W.sub.1 represents a length equivalent to 0.5 times the original width W.sub.0 of the glass preform sheet.

The present invention provides a positive electrode active material for a lithium secondary battery which is capable of preventing the degeneration of a positive electrode active material and the generation of a gas during operating a battery due to humidity, by including a surface treatment layer of an amorphous glass including an alkali metal oxide and an alkaline earth metal oxide on the surface of a core including a lithium composite metal oxide and by decreasing humidity reactivity, and a secondary battery including the same.

Composite materials are provided which include a glass-ceramic matrix composition that is lightly crystallized, a fiber reinforcement within the glass-ceramic matrix composition which remains stable at temperatures greater than 1400 C., and an interphase coating formed on the fiber reinforcement. A method of making a composite material is also provided, which includes applying heat and pressure to a shape including fiber reinforcements and glass particles. The heat and pressure lightly crystallize a matrix material formed by the heat and pressure on the glass particles, forming a thermally stable composite material.

A low cost method for producing a mechanically and thermally stable composite body containing a first layer of a material with a high silicic acid content and an additional component connected to a second layer of a material with a high silicic acid content and an additional component in a second concentration differing from the first concentration is provided. The method involves (a) preparing a first slurry layer having a free surface using a first shirt mass containing SiO.sub.2 particles and an additional component dispersed in a first dispersing agent, (b) providing a second slurry mass containing SiO.sub.2 particles and an additional component in a second concentration dispersed in a second dispersing agent, (c) forming a composite-body intermediate product by applying the second slurry mass to the free surface of the first slurry layer, and (d) heating the composite-body intermediate product while forming the composite body.

A glass composition, a macrocomposite, and methods of forming the macrocomposite including dispersing or immersing a metal in a glass. Preferably, the macrocomposite does not include an organic resin, an adhesive, or a polymer.

[Problem] The aim of the present invention lies in providing a glass ceramic sintered compact in which dielectric loss in a high-frequency region is reduced, without any reduction in sintering density, and also in providing a wiring board employing same. [Solution] A glass ceramic sintered compact containing a glass component, a ceramic filler and a composite oxide, characterized in that the glass component is crystallized glass on which is deposited a diopside oxide crystal phase including at least Mg, Ca and Si, and the composite oxide includes at least Al and Co.

A magnetizable glass ceramic composition including: a continuous first glass phase including SiO.sub.2, B.sub.2O.sub.3, P.sub.2O.sub.5, and R.sub.2O; a discontinuous second glass phase including at least one of SiO.sub.2, B.sub.2O.sub.3, P.sub.2O.sub.5, R.sub.2O, or mixtures thereof; and a discrete magnetizable crystalline phase dispersed in the discontinuous second glass phase, where R.sub.2O is selected from at least one of K.sub.2O, Li.sub.2O, Na.sub.2O, or mixtures thereof. Also disclosed are a method of making and a method of using the magnetizable glass ceramic composition.

In a known composite material with a fused silica matrix there are regions of silicon-containing phase embedded. In order to provide a composite material which is suitable for producing components for use in high-temperature processes for heat treatment even when exacting requirements are imposed on impermeability to gas and on purity, it is proposed in accordance with the invention that the composite material be impervious to gas, have a closed porosity of less than 0.5% and a specific density of at least 2.19 g/cm.sup.3, and at a temperature of 1000 C. have a spectral emissivity of at least 0.7 for wavelengths between 2 and 8 m.

The present invention relates to a forming material for three-dimensional (3D) printing, a forming method for 3D printing, and a formed object, wherein, while being based on an amorphous glass powder shaped irregularly, the forming material for 3D printing ensures excellent flowability and sinterability such that it enables the formation of high-quality products at high speed. The forming material for 3D printing consists of a parent glass powder in the form of an unmelted powder irregularly shaped by crushing amorphous glass; and a spherical nanopowder that has an average particle diameter equal to or less than 1/50.sup.th of the average particle diameter of the parent glass powder and is mixed in such a way that it can be disposed on a surface of the parent glass powder to enhance the flowability of the irregularly shaped parent glass powder during the formation of an object by 3D printing.