To impart machinability to hard and brittle AlN ceramics without losing their high thermal conductivity, a homogeneous dispersion of fine BN particles in an AlN matrix was investigated. A homogeneous dispersion of BN particles was obtained by pressureless sintering of turbostatic BN-coated AlN nanocomposite powder (AlN–BN nanocomposite powder), which was prepared by reducing and heating AlN particles containing a mixture of boric acid, urea, and carbon. Though AlN is slightly oxidized by boric acid during the reduction, the addition of carbon reduced the oxygen content of the AlN–BN composite powder by carbothermal reduction of the oxidized AlN particles. As a result, the thermal conductivity of the sintered material increased with decreasing oxygen content of the nanocomposite powder. AlN–BN nanocomposites containing more than 20 vol% BN showed high strength, machinability, and relatively high thermal conductivity in comparison with the conventional microcomposites.

Amounts of oligonucleotides adsorbed onto the Au/γ-Fe2O3 composite nanoparticles synthesized by gamma-ray irradiation and picked up by a magnet were evaluated using fluorescence technique. The adsorbing capacity of the oligonucleotides on our nanoparticles are larger than a commercial magnetic beads for a separation of biomolecules.

Al2O3/BN nanocomposites were fabricated through a novel chemical route involving hot-pressing of α–Al2O3 powders covered partly with turbostratic BN (t-BN). The nano-sized hexagonal BN (h-BN) particles were found to be homogeneously dispersed within the Al2O3 grains as well as at grain boundaries, which is indicative of nanocomposite structures. Thus, the present nanocomposites exhibited the unique properties of high strength and low Young’s modulus associated with nanocomposites. This paper discusses in detail the synthesis process and microstructural features of these materials.

Al2O3-dispersed Yb2O3-stabilized cubic-ZrO2 (YbSZ) composites are fabricated by pressureless sintering of composite powders to obtain fine and homogeneous microstructures by the solution chemistry route. Al2O3 particles are deposited on ZrO2 powders by the precipitation of aluminum nitrate followed by calcination in air. The sinterability of the composites was affected by the calcination temperature. Microstructures of the sintered bodies are dependent on the Al2O3 content. For the5 vol% Al2O3-dispersed composite, fine Al2O3 particles were mainly located insidethe grains of zirconia, whereas relatively large Al2O3 particles almost dispersed at the grain boundaries when the Al2O3 content was increased. The grain growth of YbSZ was suppressed by the Al2O3 addition, and the refinement of the matrix grain improved the fracture strength of YbSZ. The YbSZ and YbSZ/Al2O3 composites exhibited almost similar ionic conductivity at high temperatures of around 1000 °C.

Hexagonal graphitic BN (h-BN) is interesting as a second phase for high-temperature structural ceramics because it has the same crystal structure as graphite, for which fracture strength and Young’s modulus increase with increased temperature. In this study, high-temperature mechanical properties of Si3N4/BN nanocomposite were evaluated to clarify the effect of fine h-BN particles at elevated temperatures. As a result, we found that high-temperature strength and hardness of the nanocomposite were maintained up to high temperatures; also, its Young’s modulus increased gradually, concomitant with elevated temperatures up to 1400 °C. Finally, these properties were compared with those of monolithic Si3N4 and Si3N4/BN microcomposite.

Sodium ion-conductive silicon nitride ceramic with Na2O–Al2O3–SiO2 glass as the grain boundary phase was fabricated by adding Na2CO3, Al2O3, and SiO2 as sintering additives. The electrical conductivity was two and four orders of magnitude higher than that of Si3N4 ceramic with Y2O3 and Al2O3 additives at 100 and 1000°C, respectively. This result clearly indicates that ionic conductivity can be provided to insulating structural ceramics by modification of the grain boundary phase without dispersion of conductive particles.

Highly densed silicon nitride ceramics with various α/β phase ratios were produced by pulse electric current sintering process. The β-phase content of Si3N4 in sintered materials varied from 20 to 100 wt% depending on the sintering condition. The microstructure was observed by scanning electron microscopy and investigated by image analysis. Young's modulus, hardness, fracture toughness, and strength were strongly dependent on the α/β phase ratio. The fracture toughness increased from 4.6 MPa m1/2 for 20-wt% b-phase content to 8.2 MPa m1/2 for 95-wt% β-phase content, and the fracture strength showed a maximum value of about 1.6 GPa at 60-to-80-wt% β-phase content.