The present disclosure provides systems and methods for forming block crystals of a metal compound. In some embodiments, a method for forming block crystals of a metal compound may comprise (a) introducing a source metal into a furnace; (b) forming a complete or partial vacuum in the furnace and increasing a temperature of the furnace above a melting point of the source metal to form a liquid flow of the source metal; (c) breaking the liquid flow to generate particles of the source metal; (d) ionizing the particles in an ionization chamber to form ionized particles, wherein the ionization chamber has a temperature above a decomposition temperature of the metal compound; and (e) introducing the ionized particles into a growth chamber comprising a reactive gas that is reactive with the ionized particles, to thereby form the block crystals of the metal compound.

Some variations provide a method of making a nanofunctionalized metal powder, comprising: providing metal particles containing metals selected from iron, nickel, copper, titanium, magnesium, zinc, silicon, lithium, silver, chromium, manganese, vanadium, bismuth, gallium, or lead; providing nanoparticles selected from zirconium, tantalum, niobium, or titanium; disposing the nanoparticles onto surfaces of the metal particles, in the presence of mixing media, thereby generating nanofunctionalized metal particles; and isolating and recovering the nanofunctionalized metal particles as a nanofunctionalized metal powder. Some variations provide a composition comprising a nanofunctionalized metal powder, the composition comprising metal particles and nanoparticles containing one or more elements selected from the group consisting of zirconium, tantalum, niobium, titanium, and oxides, nitrides, hydrides, carbides, or borides thereof, or combinations of the foregoing.

A sintered friction material is formed by pressure sintering mixed powder at 800° C. or above, the mixed powder consisting of, in mass %, Cu and/or Cu alloy: 40.0 to 80.0%, Ni: 0% or more and less than 5.0%, Sn: 0 to 10.0%, Zn: 0 to 10.0%, VC: 0.5 to 5.0%, Fe and/or Fe alloy: 2.0 to 40.0%, lubricant: 5.0 to 30.0%, metal oxide and/or metal nitride: 1.5 to 30.0%, and the balance being impurity.

A method of producing a SmFeN-based rare earth magnet, the method including: dispersing a SmFeN-based anisotropic magnetic powder comprising Sm, Fe, and N using a resin-coated metal media or a resin-coated ceramic media to obtain a dispersed SmFeN-based anisotropic magnetic powder; mixing the dispersed SmFeN-based anisotropic magnetic powder with a modifier powder to obtain a powder mixture; compacting the powder mixture in a magnetic field to obtain a magnetic field compact; pressure-sintering the magnetic field compact to obtain a sintered compact; and heat treating the sintered compact.

A metal foam ball, several millimeters in diameter, is manufactured to have an open-pore structure to absorb fluid (e.g., gas and liquid) such as water or lubricant. As an example, a copper foam ball is manufactured via a freeze casting method using prepared oxide powder slurry where a spherical silica gel mold is used to freeze the slurry, which is subsequently dried at low temperature in vacuum and then sintered at high temperature. For improved oxidation, copper alloy foam ball or copper foam ball coated with tin can also be manufactured through the same method. For improved strength, steel, copper-nickel alloy, or titanium foam ball can also be manufactured through the same method.

A lead-based alloy containing alloying additions of bismuth, antimony, arsenic, and tin is used for the production of doped leady oxides, lead-acid battery active materials, lead-acid battery electrodes, and lead-acid batteries.

A latent heat storage body microcapsule includes a core including gallium or gallium alloy; and a shell covering the core and including gallium oxide. A method for producing the same includes a particle-forming step of forming gallium or an alloy of gallium in a liquid state into particles; a water treatment step of heating the particles in distilled water to form a gallium hydrate on a surface of each of the particles; and an oxidation treatment step of oxidizing the gallium hydrate to form a shell including gallium oxide. The method includes a particle-forming step of forming gallium or an alloy of gallium in a liquid state into particles; a cooling step of cooling the particles to a solid state; and a pH treatment step of immersing the particles in an aqueous solution having a predetermined pH to form a shell including gallium hydrate.

Disclosed is a conductive ink composition and a manufacturing method thereof. The composition includes about 50 to about 99 wt % copper nanoparticles and about 1 to about 50 wt % tin. Copper nanoparticles are atomized and suspended in a tin bath, wherein the copper nanoparticles are evenly dispersed within the bath through sonification. The composition is cooled, extracted, and formed into a filament for use as a conductive ink. The ink has a resistivity of about 46.2×E-9 Ω*m to about 742.5×E-9 Ω*m. Once in filament form, the tin-copper mix will be viable for material extrusion, thus allowing for a lower cost, electrically conductive traces to be used in additive manufacturing.

A method for the production of a superconducting wire (20) uses a monofilament (1) having a powder core (3) that contains at least Sn and Cu, an inner tube (2), made of Nb or an alloy containing Nb, that encloses the powder core (3), and an outer tube (4) in which the inner tube (2) is arranged. The outer side of the inner tube (2) is in contact with the inner side of the outer tube (4) and the outer tube (4) is produced from Nb or from an alloy containing Nb. The outer tube is disposed in a cladding tube. The superconducting current carrying capacity of the superconducting wire is thereby improved.

In the joined body (10) in which the conductor (12) and the substrate (14) are joined by the joining material (13), the joining material (13) includes a sintered body formed by sintering silver powder. A sintered body having a porosity of 8% to 30% and a surface roughness Ra of a joining surface of 500 nm or more and 3.3 μm or less is adopted.