A method for achieving sintering of ceramics at room temperature is disclosed. The method includes steps of: providing ceramic green body; placing the ceramic green body into a sealed container containing water vapor to cause the ceramic green body to soak up the water vapor to obtain an aqueous ceramic green body; removing the aqueous ceramic green body from the sealed container, and connecting a power supply to the aqueous ceramic green body; applying a voltage to the aqueous ceramic green body; and increasing the voltage to a predetermined voltage value to cause a surface discharge or an internal discharge to occur on the aqueous ceramic green body, and stopping the power supply after a predetermined time, thereby obtaining a ceramic. A ceramic formed by the method is also disclosed.

A dielectric ceramic composition including a first component and a second component. The first component comprises an oxide of Ca of 0.00 mol % to 35.85 mol % an oxide of Sr of 0.00 mol % to 47.12 mol %, an oxide of Ba of 0.00 mol % to 51.22 mol %, an oxide of Ti of 0.00 mol % to 17.36 mol %, an oxide of Zr of 0.00 mol % to 17.36 mol %, an oxide of Sn of 0.00 mol % to 2.60 mol %, an oxide of Nb of 0.00 mol % to 35.32 mol %, an oxide of Ta of 0.00 mol % to 35.32 mol %, and an oxide of V of 0.00 mol % to 2.65 mol %. The second component includes (by mass) at least (a) an oxide of Mn of 0.005% to 3.500% and (b) one or both of an oxide of Cu of 0.080% to 20.000% and an oxide of Ru of 0.300% to 45.000%.

A dielectric composition and a multilayer capacitor including the same are disclosed. The dielectric composition including: a BaTiO.sub.3-based main ingredient; a first auxiliary ingredient including rare earth elements; and a second auxiliary ingredient including at least one of Ba and Ca but essentially including Ba, wherein the rare earth elements include Tb and Dy, and the first auxiliary ingredient and the second auxiliary ingredient satisfy a molar content condition of 0.40<(Tb/T_RE)*(Ba+Ca)<0.93, where T_RE is a total molar content of the rare earth elements in the first auxiliary ingredient.

Provided is a dielectric ceramic composition including a first component and a second component, wherein the first component comprises an oxide of Ca of 0.00 mol % to 35.85 mol % an oxide of Sr of 0.00 mol % to 47.12 mol %, an oxide of Ba of 0.00 mol % to 51.22 mol %, an oxide of Ti of 0.00 mol % to 17.36 mol %, an oxide of Zr of 0.00 mol % to 17.36 mol %, an oxide of Sn of 0.00 mol % to 2.60 mol %, an oxide of Nb of 0.00 mol % to 35.32 mol %, an oxide of Ta of 0.00 mol % to 35.32 mol %, and an oxide of V of 0.00 mol % to 2.65 mol %, and the second component includes at least (a) an oxide of Mn of 0.005% by mass to 3.500% by mass and (b) an oxide of Cu and/or an oxide of Ru.

A dielectric composition includes dielectric particles, grain boundary phases, and segregations. The dielectric particles each include a perovskite compound represented by ABO.sub.3 as a main component. The grain boundary phases are located between the dielectric particles. The segregations exist in a part of the grain boundary phases and include at least Al, Si, and O. A molar ratio (Al/(Al+Si)) of an Al content to a total content of Al and Si in the segregations is 0.45 or more and 0.75 or less.

A dielectric ceramic composition includes a barium titanate (BaTiO.sub.3)-based base material main ingredient and an accessory ingredient, the accessory ingredient including dysprosium (Dy) and praseodymium (Pr) as first accessory ingredients. A content of the Pr satisfies 0.233 mol≤Pr≤0.699 mol, based on 100 mol of the barium titanate base material main ingredient.

A dielectric ceramic composition includes a barium titanate (BaTiO.sub.3)-based base material main ingredient and an accessory ingredient, the accessory ingredient including dysprosium (Dy) and praseodymium (Pr) as first accessory ingredients. A content of the Pr satisfies 0.233 mol≤Pr≤0.699 mol, based on 100 mol of the barium titanate base material main ingredient.

Provided is a dielectric composition containing: a main component expressed by {Ba.sub.xSr.sub.(1-x)}.sub.mTa.sub.4O.sub.12; and a first subcomponent, m satisfying a relationship of 1.95≤m≤2.40. The first subcomponent includes silicon and manganese. When the amount of the main component contained in the dielectric composition is set to 100 parts by mole, the amount of silicon contained in the dielectric composition is 5.0 to 20.0 parts by mole in terms of SiO.sub.2, and the amount of manganese contained in the dielectric composition is 1.0 to 4.5 parts by mole in terms of MnO.

A dielectric ceramic composition contains dielectric particles containing a main component represented by a composition formula (Ba.sub.1-x-ySr.sub.xCa.sub.y).sub.m(Ti.sub.1-zZr.sub.z)O.sub.3 and grain boundaries present between the dielectric particles. The values of m, x, y, and z in the composition formula are all molar ratios. In the composition formula, 0.9≤m≤1.4, 0≤x<1.0, 0<y≤1.0, 0.9≤(x+y)≤1.0, and 0.9≤z≤1.0 are satisfied. The dielectric particles contain specific structural particles having a predetermined intragranular structure, and each of the specific structural particles intragranularly includes a first region and a second region having different Ca concentrations from each other. C2/C1 is less than 0.8 in which C1 is an average value of the Ca concentration in the first region and C2 is an average value of the Ca concentration in the second region.

A thermoelectric conversion material formed of a sintered body containing magnesium silicide as a main component contains 0.5 mass % or more and 10 mass % or less of aluminum oxide. The aluminum oxide is distributed at a crystal grain boundary of the magnesium silicide.