A cubic boron nitride sintered material includes: to 98 volume % of cubic boron nitride grains; and a binder phase, wherein the binder phase includes at least one selected from a group consisting of one or more first compounds and a solid solution originated from the first compounds, the cubic boron nitride grains include, on number basis, more than or equal to 50% of cubic boron nitride grains each having an equivalent circle diameter of more than 0.5 μm, and includes, on number basis, less than or equal to 50% of cubic boron nitride grains each having an equivalent circle diameter of more than 2 μm, and when a mass of the cubic boron nitride grains is assumed as 100 mass %, a total content of lithium, magnesium, calcium, strontium, beryllium, and barium in the cubic boron nitride grains is less than 0.001 mass %.

Provided is a member for a plasma processing apparatus consisting of a tungsten carbide phase. The member includes at least one type of atom selected from the group consisting of a Fe atom, a Co atom, and a Ni atom, in which the total content of the atoms is in a range of 30 to 3300 atomic ppm.

A polycrystalline super hard construction is disclosed having a first region comprising a body of thermally stable polycrystalline super hard material having an exposed surface forming a working surface, and a peripheral side edge, the polycrystalline super hard material comprising a plurality of grains of super hard material; a second region forming a substrate to the first region; and a third region interposed between the first and second regions. The third region extends across a surface of the second region along an interface, the interface comprising a portion having an uneven topology and a substantially planar portion, the third region comprising a composite material including a first phase comprising a plurality of non-intergrown diamond grains, and a matrix material.

Provided are a high-entropy carbide ceramic, a rare earth-containing high-entropy carbide ceramic, fibers thereof, precursors thereof, and preparation methods thereof. The precursor includes at least four elements selected from Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta, Mo, and W, with each metal element accounting for 5-35% of the total molar quantity of metal elements in the precursor. The rare earth-containing high-entropy carbide ceramic precursor includes at least four transition metal elements and at least one rare-earth metal element. The high-entropy ceramic is a single-crystal-phase high-performance ceramic prepared from the precursor, with each element being homogenously distributed at molecular level. The method for preparing the high-entropy ceramic fiber includes uniformly mixing high-entropy carbide ceramic precursor containing target metal elements with spinning aid and solvent to prepare a spinnable precursor solution, followed by spinning, pyrolyzation, and high-temperature solid solution to prepare the high-entropy carbide ceramic fiber.

Disclosed is a coating material for coating a surface of a kiln for preparing an active material, the coating material being represented by the following Formula 1:

Ni.sub.aX.sub.z  (1) wherein an equation of a+z=1 is satisfied, with the proviso that 0.2≤a<1.0 and 0<z≤0.8 are satisfied, and X is at least one element selected from the group consisting of W, Cr, Co, Fe, Cu, Na, Al, Mg, Si, Zn, K, Ti, Mo, N, B, P, C, Ta, Nb, O, Mn, Sn, Ag and Zr, or an alloy or compound of two or more elements selected therefrom.

A surface-coated cutting tool including a tool substrate containing WC crystal grains and insulating grains, and a coating layer composed of a multiple nitride of Ti, Al, and V and disposed on the surface of the tool substrate. The multiple nitride is represented by a compositional formula: Ti.sub.aAl.sub.bV.sub.cN satisfying the following relations:
0.25≤a≤0.35,
0.64≤b≤0.74,
0<c≤0.06, and
a+b+c=1
wherein each of a, b, and c represents an atomic proportion. The coating layer is characterized by exhibiting a peak attributed to a hexagonal crystal phase and a peak attributed to a cubic crystal phase as observed through X-ray diffractometry.

A cermet contains hard phase particles containing Ti and a binding phase containing at least one of Ni and Co, and 70% or more (by number) of the hard phase particles have a cored structure containing a core and a peripheral portion around the core. The core is composed mainly of at least one of Ti carbide, Ti nitride, and Ti carbonitride, and the peripheral portion is composed mainly of a Ti composite compound containing Ti and at least one selected from W, Mo, Ta, Nb, and Cr. The core has an average particle size α, the peripheral portion has an average particle size β, and α and β satisfy 1.1≦β/α≦1.7.

A method of forming a super hard polycrystalline construction comprises forming a liquid suspension of a first mass of nano-ceramic particles and a mass of particles or grains of super hard material having an average particle or grain size of 1 or more microns, dispersing the particles or grains in the liquid suspension to form a substantially homogeneous suspension, drying the suspension to form an admix of the nano-ceramic and super hard grains or particles, and forming a pre-sinter assembly comprising the admix. The pre-sinter assembly is then sintered to form a body of polycrystalline super hard material comprising a first fraction of super hard grains and a second fraction, the nano-ceramic particles forming the second fraction.

The super hard grains are spaced along at least a portion of the peripheral surface by one or more nano-ceramic grains, the super hard grains having a greater average grain size than that of the grains in the second fraction which have an average size of less than around 999 nm.

Multi-step milling processes to prepare cBN composite powder forms a first powder mixture by adding a binder and a first cBN component, mills the first powder mixture for a first time period, combines a second cBN component with the milled first powder mixture to form a second powder mixture, and mills the second powder mixture for a second time period (less than the first time period) to form the cBN composite powder. A ratio of the D50 value of the second cBN component to the D50 value of the first cBN component is at least 3.0. Two-step milling with different milling times for the two cBN component fractions controls the amount of mill debris in the cBN composite powder mixture. Further processing of the cBN composite powder under HPHT conditions forms a cBN-based ceramic with an average value of a cBN particle free diameter of less than 2.0 microns.

A cubic boron nitride-based sintered material includes cubic boron nitride particles of 70 to 95 vol %, in which in a structure of a cross-section of the sintered material, a binder phase with a width of 1 nm to 30 nm is present between the adjacent cubic boron nitride particles, the binder phase being made of a compound containing at least Al, B, and N and having a ratio of an oxygen content to an Al content of 0.1 or less in terms of atomic ratio.