In a process for manufacturing a component for an emissions treatment unit, green ceramic product is extruded through a die to form an extrusion having a honeycomb substrate structure with an array of parallel, linear tubular cells extending along its length, the cells bounded by walls dividing adjacent cells from one another. A ceramic unit is obtained by cutting off, curing and firing a length of the extrusion a length of the extrusion. Following the firing, a mixture of a flowable, uncured curable material and a particulate metal component is injected from an end of the ceramic unit into selected ones of the cells so as to block the selected cells over at least a part of their lengths while maintaining all of the walls of the ceramic unit. The injected mixture is then cured to render it solid.

A honeycomb filter includes a pillar-shaped honeycomb structure body having a porous partition wall disposed to surround a plurality of cells and a plugging portion provided at an open end on a first end face side or a second end face side of the cells, wherein the partition wall is composed of a material containing cordierite as a main component, a porosity of the partition wall is 60 to 70%, an average pore diameter of the partition wall is 20 to 30 μm, an open porosity of pores existing at the partition wall surface and having equivalent circle diameters exceeding 1.5 μm is 31% or more, and, in a pore diameter distribution which indicates a cumulative pore volume of the partition wall, a half-value width of a first peak including a maximum value of a log differential pore volume is 0.20 or less.

A separation membrane structure has partition walls including a honeycomb shaped porous ceramic body provided with a large number of pores, and cells to become through channels of a fluid are formed by the partition walls. The cells include separation cells and slit cells. In the separation cells, the intermediate layer is disposed on the surface of a substrate, and a separation layer is further formed. The intermediate layer has a structure where aggregate particles are bonded to one another by an inorganic bonding material having a thermal expansion coefficient equal to or higher than that of the aggregate particles.

A vehicular exhaust filter comprising a porous substrate having an inlet face and an outlet face with the porous substrate comprising inlet channels extending from the inlet face and outlet channels extending from the outlet face is disclosed. The inlet channels and the outlet channels are separated by a plurality of filter walls having a porous structure. The vehicular exhaust filter is loaded with a refractory powder having a tapped density before loading of less than 0.10 g/cm.sup.3 and the vehicular exhaust filter has a mass loading of the refractory powder of less than 10 g/l.

Disclosed are a three-dimensional porous structure, a method of preparing the same, and applications thereof. The method includes coating a coating material including coal ash on a surface of a combustible organic particle to form a core-shell particle, wherein the core-shell particle includes a combustible organic particle core, and a coating shell covering at least a portion of the combustible organic particle surface; mixing a plurality of the core-shell particles with an organic or inorganic binder to form a three-dimensional structure in which the core-shell particles are bonded to each other; and performing thermal treatment of the three-dimensional structure, wherein in the thermal treatment of the three-dimensional structure, at least portion of the combustible organic particle in the core-shell particle is removed away, thereby forming a hollow inside the particle core, and forming a number of fine pores in the coating shell.

A honeycomb structure includes a honeycomb structure body having porous partition walls, wherein a value of a porosity of the partition wall in a partitioning wall portion between the two cells is defined as a porosity A, a value of a porosity of the partition wall in an intersecting portion that is a region connecting two or more wall portions is defined as a porosity B, a value of A/B obtained by dividing the porosity A by the porosity B is from 0.5 to 0.95, and the porosity A is from 10 to 40%.

A fluid heating component including: a pillar-shaped member made of ceramics and formed with through channels through which a fluid passes, and a conductive coating layer disposed on at least a part of a circumferential surface of the pillar-shaped member, wherein the conductive coating layer is disposed on coats the whole circumference of a cut surface of the pillar-shaped member in a state where the conducive coating layer is electrically connected, in the cut surface of the pillar-shaped member which is perpendicular to a passing direction of the fluid.

An exhaust gas purification filter includes a plurality of cells extending in a filter axial direction, a porous partition separating and defining the plurality of cells, and a sealing section sealing the plurality of cells alternately at both filter ends. In the exhaust gas purification filter, the partition has a void volume of a reduced dale, Vvv, and a material volume of a reduced peak, Vmp, as volume parameters determined in noncontact surface roughness measurement on a surface of the partition, with their total value being 1.8 μm.sup.3/μm.sup.2 or less.

A honeycomb structure includes: an outer peripheral wall; and partition walls disposed on an inner side of the outer peripheral wall, the partition walls defining a plurality of cells, each of the plurality of cells extending from one end face to the other end face to form a flow path for a fluid. The partition walls and the outer peripheral wall include ceramics containing at least silicon. A content of silicon in the ceramics is 30% by mass or more. A concentration of at least one dopant in the silicon is from 10.sup.16 to 5×10.sup.20/cm.sup.3.

Provided is an exhaust gas purifying filter used with a HC purifying catalyst supported thereon. Numerous pores are formed in partitions of the exhaust gas purifying filter. In a cross-section of the partition, pores are open at a passage surface, having an open end of which the opening diameter is 50 μm or larger. In the cross-section of the partitions, the partitions include a narrow part where a pore diameter is 5 μm or more and the pore diameter becomes a minimum in a region. In the cross-section of the partitions, the region is positioned between a pair of virtual lines L.sub.1 and L.sub.2 extending from opposing sides of the opening end to a passage surface positioned opposite to the opening end along the wall thickness direction X, Z. The pore diameter at the narrow part is 6% or more and less than or equal to 20% of the opening diameter.