Disclosed are system and methods for manufacturing a solid-state electrolyte to be used in an electrochemical cell. The method can include forming a solid-state electrolyte from a material having a compositional property and a structural property, the material having been selected by: (i) providing material properties of a material, wherein the material properties comprise both compositional and structural information; (ii) calculating a first distortion parameter of a material, wherein the first distortion parameter represents the degree of lattice distortion of the material; (iii) determining an estimated ionic mobility value of the material using the one or more distortion parameters; (iv) varying the provided material properties using isovalent substitution and determining a second ionic mobility value from a second distortion parameter by repeating steps (i)-(iii); and (v) comparing the first and second ionic mobility values to select the superior material derivative.

A thermal method of forming ferric oxide nano/microparticles with predominant morphology is described using different solvents. Methods of using the Fe.sub.3O.sub.4 nano/microparticles as catalysts in the reduction of nitro compounds with sodium borohydride to the corresponding amines and decomposition of ammonium salts.

A thermal method of forming ferric oxide nano/microparticles with predominant morphology is described using different solvents. Methods of using the Fe.sub.3O.sub.4 nano/microparticles as catalysts in the reduction of nitro compounds with sodium borohydride to the corresponding amines and decomposition of ammonium salts.

Methods for the scalable and systematic synthesis of semiconducting Chevrel phase compounds via self-propagating high temperature synthesis (SHS) are provided. The provided methods utilize elemental precursors not utilized by typical synthesis methods. The precursors may include molybdenum (Mo), molybdenum disulfide (MoS.sub.2), and a ternary cation. In various aspects, the ternary cation may be copper (Cu), iron (Fe), or nickel (Ni). The utilization of the provided precursors and SHS decreases the time it takes to synthesize Chevrel phase compounds as compared to typical heat treatment methods.

Positive electrode active material particle powder includes: lithium manganese oxide particle powder having Li and Mn as main components and a cubic spinel structure with an Fd-3m space group. The lithium manganese oxide particle powder is composed of secondary particles, which are aggregates of primary particles, an average particle diameter (D50) of the secondary particles being from 4 μm to 20 μm, and at least 80% of the primary particles exposed on surfaces of the secondary particles each have a polyhedral shape having at least one (110) plane that is adjacent to two (111) planes.

A titanium oxide powder of the present invention has a BET specific surface area of 5 m.sup.2/g or more and 15 m.sup.2/g or less and contains polyhedral-shaped titanium oxide particles having eight or more faces, in which a mass reduction rate in a case of being heated at 800° C. for 1 hour in an air atmosphere is 0.03% by mass or more and 0.5% by mass or less.

A titanium oxide powder of the present invention contains a polyhedral-shaped titanium oxide particles, in which each particle of the polyhedral-shaped titanium oxide particles has eight or more faces and an average primary particle diameter is 300 nm or higher and 1000 nm or lower, and a crystallinity is 0.95 or higher.

The present invention relates to a material of the formula SnTiO.sub.3 having a crystal structure comprised of layers, wherein the layers comprise Sn(II) ions, Ti(IV) ions and edge-sharing O.sub.6-octahedra, the edge-sharing O.sub.6-octahedra form a sub-layer, the Ti(IV) ions are located within ⅔ of the edge-sharing O.sub.6-octahedra, thus forming edge-sharing TiO.sub.6-octahedra, the edge-sharing TiO.sub.6-octahedra form a honeycomb structure within the sub-layer, the honeycomb structure comprising hexagons with Ti(IV)-vacancies within the hexagons, the Sn(II) ions are located above and below the Ti(IV)-vacancies with respect to the sub-layer, the Ti(IV) ions are optionally substituted with M, M is one or more elements selected from Group 4 and Group 14 elements, and the crystal structure satisfies at least one of the following features (i) and (ii): (i) the Sn(II) ions have a tetrahedral coordination sphere involving three O ions of the layer and the electron lone pair of the Sn(II) ions which is situated at an apical position relative to the three O ions of the layer, (ii) the layers are stacked so that each layer is translated relative to each adjacent layer by a stacking vector S1 or a stacking vector S2, the centers of adjacent hexagons form a parallelogram with a side having a length x and side having a length y, the stacking vector S1 is a combined translation along the side having the length x by ⅔ x and along the side having a lengthy by ⅓ y, the stacking vector S2 is a combined translation along the side having the length x by ⅓ x and along the side having a lengthy by ⅔ y, and the crystal structure comprises layers translated relative to adjacent layers by the stacking vector S1 and layers translated relative to adjacent layers by the stacking vector S2. The present invention is further directed to a material of the formula SnTiO.sub.3 having a tetragonal perovskite-type crystal structure, a method for the preparation of SnTiO.sub.3, a device comprising a ferroelectric material and a use of the material of the formula SnTiO.sub.3 in a ferroelectric element.

A near-infrared shielding film including a continuous film of a cesium tungsten composite oxide represented by a general formula Cs.sub.xW.sub.yO.sub.z where 4.8≤x≤14.6, 20.0≤y≤26.7, 62.2≤z≤71.4, and x+y+z=100, is provided. The continuous film includes one or more crystals selected from an orthorhombic crystal, a rhombohedral crystal, and a hexagonal crystal.

A thermal method of forming ferric oxide nano/microparticles with predominant morphology is described using different solvents. Methods of using the Fe.sub.3O.sub.4 nano/microparticles as catalysts in the reduction of nitro compounds with sodium borohydride to the corresponding amines and decomposition of ammonium salts.