A catalytic convertor comprising a substrate body (100) arranged within the catalytic convertor such that a principal flow of fluid through the catalytic convertor flows along a surface (101) of the substrate body, wherein said surface (101) has a plurality of openings (210) to micro-channels that extend away from said surface (101); and at least a portion of the surface (101) of the substrate body (100) comprises a catalytically active material, wherein the substrate body (100) is in the form of: a pellet; a sheet; solid elongate bodies; solid rods; a solid body having a plurality of bores; a non-tubular elongate body; a non-hollow body; a sheet curved in the form or a spiral; or a combination thereof.

A vehicular exhaust filter (2) 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 (2) 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.

electrically conductive honeycomb body that includes a porous honeycomb structure including a plurality of intersecting porous walls arranged to provide a matrix of cells, the porous walls including wall surfaces that define a plurality of channels extending from an inlet end to an outlet end of the structure. The porous walls include ceramic composite material that includes at least one carbide phase and at least one silicide phase, each carbide and silicide phase including one or more metals selected from the group consisting of Si, Mo, Ti, Zr and W.

A pillar shaped honeycomb structure, including: an outer peripheral wall; and a porous partition wall disposed inside the outer peripheral wall, the a porous partition wall defining a plurality of cells, each of the cells extending from one end face to other end face to form a flow path, wherein a surface of the porous partition wall in the cells comprise a collecting layer having an average pore diameter lower than that of the porous partition wall; and wherein magnetic particles having a Curie point of 700° C. or higher are provided either or both between the surfaces of the porous partition wall and the collecting layer, and on the collecting layer.

A catalytic composition is built up from a ceramic material including a catalytic material and a first inorganic binder and a second inorganic binder and a catalytic structure made thereof. Preferably, the structure is made by a colloidal ceramic shaping technique. The structure is usable for catalytic or ion exchange applications as well. It is demonstrated that the catalytic structures have excellent mechanical, physicochemical and catalytic properties.

A pillar shaped honeycomb structure includes: a porous partition wall that defines a plurality of cells, the cells forming flow paths for a fluid, the cells extending from an inflow end face to an outflow end face; and an outer peripheral wall located at the outermost circumference. The cells include: a plurality of cells A wherein a side of the inflow end face is opened and the outflow end face has a plugged portion; and a plurality of cells B wherein a side of the outflow end face is opened and the inflow end face has a plugged portion, the cells B being arranged alternately with the cells A. One or both of the plugged portion of the cells A and the plugged portions of the cells B contain a magnetic substance and glass.

Porous, electrically conductive ceramic foams incorporating continuous self-assembled graphene networks are described. The disclosed approach uses interfacial trapping to spontaneously exfoliate and assemble pristine graphite, not graphite oxide, in a ceramic sol-gel. The composite foams display electrical conductivity and joule heating, with anticipated applications as, for example, catalyst supports, thermoelectrics, and porous electrodes.

A porous material includes an aggregate, and a binding material that binds the aggregate together in a state where pores are formed. The porous material contains 0.1 to 10.0 mass % of an MgO component, 0.5 to 25.0 mass % of an Al.sub.2O.sub.3 component, and 5.0 to 45.0 mass % of an SiO.sub.2 component with respect to the mass of the whole porous material, and further contains 0.01 to 5.5 mass % of an Sr component in terms of SrO.

Known processes for preparing a porous carbonaceous material require lengthy polymerization and washing steps involving solvents or neutralizing agents. The use of high quantities of pore formers leads to a lower carbon yield and higher costs, and use of sulphuric acid leads to sulphur contamination of the final material, but also to corrosion and corrosive by-products and a more complicated handling of the process. In order allows the manufacturing of a porous carbonaceous material with a high pore volume and avoiding the disadvantages of the known methods, a process is provide that comprise the steps of a) providing at least one carbon source and at least one amphiphilic species, b) combining at least the carbon source and the amphiphilic species to obtain a precursor material, c) heating the precursor material to a temperature in the range between 300° C. and 600° C. for at least 15 min so as to obtain a porous carbonaceous material, which is then cooled so as to form the porous carbonaceous material having a modal pore size and a pore volume and a skeleton density.

A ceramic honeycomb body comprising a peripheral skin layer and a fiber extending around the outer periphery of a honeycomb core, the fiber embedded in the peripheral skin layer is described. A method of making a honeycomb body having a fiber extending around the outer periphery of a honeycomb core and embedded in the peripheral skin layer is also described.