A soft magnetic composite comprising an iron or iron alloy ferromagnetic material coated with an oxide material. An interface between the ferromagnetic material and the layer of oxide contains antiphase domain boundaries. Two processes for producing a soft magnetic composite are also provided. One process includes depositing an oxide layer onto an iron or iron alloy ferromagnetic material by molecular beam epitaxy at a partial oxygen pressure of from 1×10.sup.−5 Torr to 1×10.sup.−7 Torr to form a coated composite. The other process includes milling an iron or iron alloy ferromagnetic material powder and an oxide powder by high-energy milling to form a mixture; compacting the mixture and curing in an inert gas atmosphere at a temperature from 500° C. to 1200° C. to form a soft magnetic composite.

Disclosed is a spherical powder, and a preparation method therefor including: placing an electrode and a workpiece at two electrodes of a power supply, adjusting a discharging gap between the electrode and workpiece by a motion control system to generate an arc plasma, when arc plasma acts on surfaces of the electrode and workpiece, the surfaces of the electrode and workpiece are melt to form a melting region, at the same time, introducing a fluid medium into the discharging gap, controlling a flow rate of the fluid medium and a relative rotation speed of the electrode or the workpiece, so as to change a working morphology of the arc plasma, such that a tiny explosion is generated in the melting region, crushing and throwing away a material located in the melting region, condensing the crushed molten material in the fluid medium and collecting a condensed fine spherical powder.

A component obtainable by a process which includes providing a composition and sintering the composition at a sintering temperature of from 1250° C. to 1400° C. for a period of from 3 to 15 minutes. The composition includes hard material particles with an inner core of fused tungsten carbide and an outer shell of tungsten carbide, and a binder metal selected from Co, Ni, Fe and alloys with at least one metal selected from Co, Ni and Fe.

A process and a system for producing a stock solution for production of a ferrofluid is provided. The process includes contacting an acidic solution in a reaction container filled with an excess of a bulk material containing Fe(III) and optionally Fe(II). The acid reacts with the bulk material to form the stock solution (Ls) having dissolved ferric (Fe(III)) and optionally ferrous (Fe(II)) ions which is then separated from the bulk material.

A method to produce metallic beryllium spheres with high sphericity in a large quantity efficiently at a low cost is provided herein. The method of continuously producing metal beryllium spheres comprises the steps of: collecting granulated beryllium spheres produced by charging beryllium powder into a rotary kiln; classifying the collected beryllium spheres by particle size with an automatic sieve; and crushing particles of beryllium spheres of non-target diameters and mixing them with the raw material beryllium powder for reuse. The rotary kiln has a core tube the inner surface of which is coated with beryllium oxide by sintering the slurry coating of beryllium hydroxide applied after alkaline silica treatment.

In a metal fiber molded body (40), a ratio, to a presence ratio of metal fibers in a first cross-section, of a presence ratio of metal fibers in a second cross-section orthogonal to the first cross-section is in a range of 0.85 to 1.15. A method for manufacturing the metal fiber molded body (40) according to the present invention includes the steps of: accumulating a plurality of short metal fibers (30) on a receiving part; and sintering the plurality of short metal fibers (30) accumulated on the receiving part, to produce the metal fiber molded body (40).

A thermoelectric sintered body according to an embodiment comprises thermoelectric powder, the thermoelectric powder, arranged in a horizontal direction, comprising: a plurality of first powders in the shape of plate-type flakes; and a plurality of second powders in a shape different from that of the first powders, wherein the second powders comprise 5 volume % or less of the total thermoelectric powder.

The present invention addresses the problem of providing a method for producing metal microparticles in which the particle diameter and the coefficient of variation are controlled. Using at least two kinds of fluid to be processed including a fluid which contains at least one kind of reducing agent, the fluid to be processed is mixed in a thin film fluid formed between at least two processing surfaces, at least one of which rotates relative to the other, and which are disposed facing each other and capable of approaching and separating from each other, and metalmicroparticles are separated. At this time, the fluid to be processed containing one or both of the fluid which contains at least one kind of metal and/or metal compound and the fluid which contains at least one kind of reducing agent contains a water-containing polyol in which water and a polyol are mixed, and does not contain a monovalent alcohol, and the particle diameter and coefficient of variance of the separated metal microparticles is controlled by controlling the ratio of water contained in the water-containing polyol.

The present invention addresses the problem of providing a method for producing metal microparticles in which the particle diameter and the coefficient of variation are controlled. Using at least two kinds of fluid to be processed including a fluid which contains at least one kind of reducing agent, the fluid to be processed is mixed in a thin film fluid formed between at least two processing surfaces, at least one of which rotates relative to the other, and which are disposed facing each other and capable of approaching and separating from each other, and metalmicroparticles are separated. At this time, the fluid to be processed containing one or both of the fluid which contains at least one kind of metal and/or metal compound and the fluid which contains at least one kind of reducing agent contains a water-containing polyol in which water and a polyol are mixed, and does not contain a monovalent alcohol, and the particle diameter and coefficient of variance of the separated metal microparticles is controlled by controlling the ratio of water contained in the water-containing polyol.

According to the present invention, there are provided processes for preparing a porous composite material comprising a metal and a two-dimensional nanomaterial. In one aspect, the processes comprise the steps of: providing a powder comprising metal particles; heating the powder such that the metal particles fuse to form a porous scaffold; and forming a two-dimensional nanomaterial on a surface of the porous scaffold by chemical vapour deposition (CVD). Also provided are materials obtainable by the present processes, and products comprising said materials.