Green bodies are safely, economically and efficiently debound in a dual quartz reactor by subjecting them to a steady laminar upward flow of freshly distilled solvent so that the concentration difference of soluble binder at the green body/solvent interface is at all times maximized for optimum binder extraction as per Fick's laws of diffusion. Binder extraction rate is monitored by inline spectrophotometry of the reactor overflow. Following solvent extraction, the residual insoluble binder is thermally extracted without the need to transfer the green bodies to a different vessel.

The invention relates to A slurry composition, comprising: an inorganic powder; a dispersant; and a solvent wherein the dispersant is a block copolymer comprising at least one hydrophobic block A and at least one hydrophilic block B, and wherein the blocks A and B comprise repeating units represented by the following general formula (I) wherein R.sup.1 is selected from a hydrogen atom, a linear or branched alkyl group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms and a cyclic alkyl group having 4 to 6 carbon atoms, and wherein at least one carboxylic acid group or a salt thereof is covalently linked to the block copolymer.

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Silicon particles for active materials and electro-chemical cells are provided. The active materials comprising silicon particles described herein can be utilized as an electrode material for a battery. In certain embodiments, the composite material includes greater than 0% and less than about 90% by weight of silicon particles. The silicon particles have an average particle size between about 0.1 μm and about 30 μm and a surface including nanometer-sized features. The composite material also includes greater than 0% and less than about 90% by weight of one or more types of carbon phases. At least one of the one or more types of carbon phases is a substantially continuous phase.

A coating liquid for preparing a needle-shaped cylinder liner, comprising the following components: 0.05-0.4 parts of an anionic surfactant; 0.05-0.5 parts of tannic acid; 0.15-0.7 parts of caustic soda; 22-38 parts of diatomite; 3-10 parts of montmorillonite; and 62-75 parts of water. A method for preparing a needle-shaped cylinder liner comprises spraying a coating liquid for preparing the needle-shaped cylinder liner onto the inner wall of a hollow cylindrical mould, and drying the coating liquid to obtain a mould with a coating attached to the surface of the inner wall; adding an inoculated iron liquid into the rotary mould, and cooling and demoulding to obtain a cylinder liner blank; and subjecting the blank to outer surface cleaning and forming machining to obtain the needle-shaped cylinder liner.

Sintered product having a chemical analysis such that, in mass percentages: SiO.sub.2 content is greater than 0.2% and less than 2%, and CaO content is greater than 0.1% and less than 1.5%, and MgO content is less than 0.3%, and alumina and other elements being the complement at 100%, the content of other elements being less than 1.5%, having a relative density greater than 90%, comprising, for more than 90% of its volume, a stack of ceramic platelets (10) laid flat, all of said platelets having an average thickness less than 3 μm, more than 95% by number of said platelets each containing more than 95% by mass of alumina, having a width (l) greater than 81 mm.

A moldable green-body composite includes milling silicon nitride powder with a solvent and adding a surface modifier to the milled slurry to modify a surface of the silicon nitride particles. A polysiloxane in a solvent and a binder are also added to create a green body slurry. The solvents may be polar or non-polar solvents. A sintering aid, such as yttria-alumina, may be added to the slurry as well. A reduced density silicon nitride ceramic is made from the moldable green-body composite by molding the moldable green-body composite in a mold and curing at a curing temperature to convert the moldable green-body composite to a converted composite. The converted composite can then be sintered to form a reduced density silicon nitride ceramic that has a smooth surface finish and requires no post machining or polishing. The reduced density silicon nitride ceramic may also have very good dielectric properties.

The present invention provides a resin composition for a ceramic green sheet capable of providing a ceramic green sheet that has high mechanical strength even with small thickness and is less likely to have appearance defects after cutting or dimensional changes after drying, and a ceramic green sheet and a multilayer ceramic capacitor each produced using the resin composition for a ceramic green sheet. Provided is a resin composition for a ceramic green sheet, the resin composition containing a polyvinyl acetal resin, the resin composition having a tan δ peak top of 1.25 or more and a loss modulus E″ of 2.30×10.sup.8 Pa or more.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for preparing a silicon-carbon-graphene composite, comprising the steps of: (step 1) adding a carbon precursor solution to silicon and performing wet grinding so as to prepare a suspension: (step 2) forming a silicon-carbon composite by spray drying the suspension; and (step 3) spray drying and heat treating a solution comprising the silicon-carbon composite and graphene oxide.

A spinel-reinforced magnesium oxide-based foam ceramic filter that is obtained by coating onto a polyurethane foam carrier a slurry of light calcined magnesium oxide-based ceramic comprising a nanometer lanthanum oxide sintering aid, and then drying and sintering. A method for preparing the foam ceramic filter comprising: 1) preparing a ceramic slurry having a solid content of 60%-70% by dosing 15%-25% by mass of a nanometer alumina sol, 0.8%-1.5% by mass of a rheological agent, and the balance magnesium oxide ceramic powder comprising a nanometer lanthanum oxide sintering aid, and then adding absolute ethanol and ball milling to mix until uniform; 2) soaking a polyurethane foam template into the ceramic slurry, squeezing by a roller press the polyurethane foam template to remove redundant slurry therein to make a biscuit, and then removing the ethanol solvent in a ventilation chamber at a temperature of 40° C.-50° C. to dry the biscuit; 3) putting the dried biscuit into a sintering furnace, elevating the temperature to 1350° C.-1550° C. and performing a high temperature sintering, cooling to the room temperature with the furnace to obtain the magnesium oxide-based ceramic foam filter.

An insulating product for the refractory industry or an insulating material as intermediate for production of such a product, and a corresponding insulating material/insulating product are provided. Likewise the use of a matrix encapsulation process in the production of an insulating product for the refractory industry and a corresponding insulating product and/or an insulating material as intermediate for production of such a product are provided.