Bones are an absolutely essential organ for our body on chemical, biological and mechanical aspects, while the discovering of their hidden functions is challenging because bones, consisting of biominerals and biopolymers, have complicated hierarchical structure. In this review, bioceramics-soft material hybrid materials are introduced as a simplified model material to estimate the functions of bones. The design of polymer is important because it has been considered that such polymer regulates bioceramics formation in the early stage of bone formation. The polypeptide, self-assembling to fine structure, was employed to investigate the effect of functional group pattern in angstrom scale on hydroxyapatite (HAp) mineralization. Also, polymeric gels were applied to investigate the energy dissipation coming from mineral deformation and the effect of anisotropic space of polymer on HAp mineralization because the polymer network in gel can be deformed by macroscopic deformation. Furthermore, the bioceramics-tough gel system itself can be used as biomaterials bondable to bones. The hybridization of bioceramics and soft material has great potential to estimate various functions and mechanisms of bones up to material design.

Catalytic oxidation is an important method for eliminating environmentally harmful organic compounds, such as methane and volatile organic compounds, emitted by human activities. To decompose such organic compounds effectively, novel catalysts have been developed using promoters that can facilitate oxidation by supplying oxygen species in their lattice. By the introduction of oxygen vacancies for facilitation of oxide ion migration and enhancement of redox properties, oxygen release and storage abilities of the CeO₂–ZrO₂ based promoter have been reported to be significantly improved, resulting in a high catalytic activity for the oxidation of organic compounds in gaseous and liquid phases. This review article presents new developments for CeO₂–ZrO₂ based catalysts aimed at oxygen supply. In addition, the development of novel apatite-type La₁₀Si₆O₂₇ based solids with an oxide ion-conducting pathway in the lattice, which can accelerate catalytic oxidation, is presented.

The electrode fabrication process, i.e., mixing the particles of active material and conductive additive in a binder solution, casting and drying, and calendering, play an important role in the electrode microstructure and electrochemical performance of lithium-ion (LiB) batteries. In this study, we demonstrate the influence of the solvent added to the graphite-based anode slurry during processing, and then investigate the synergistic effect of calendering on electrode morphology, coating density, and electrochemical behavior for use in high-performance LiB. The dispersion state of the electrode particles and the amount of effective mass charged per unit volume are strongly influenced by the amount of solvent added to the slurry. We have verified the uniformity and stability of the slurry prepared from aqueous graphite electrodes and found that it also has a remarkable effect on the electrode microstructure and electrochemical performance, which is synergistic with the help of calendering. The precision of this work could enable researchers to fabricate their own high-quality lithium-ion battery electrodes at laboratory scale and with high reproducibility.

Dense ceramics of the pyrochlore (Bi_1.5Zn_0.5)(Ti_1.5Nb_0.5)O₇ can be prepared at 1100 °C and exhibit a high permittivity (ε_r = 200) and low dielectric loss (tan δ < 1 × 10⁻⁴) at 1 MHz and room temperature. In this study, the effect of MgO addition on the phase evolution, sintering behaviour, microstructures and dielectric properties of (Bi_1.5Zn_0.5)(Ti_1.5Nb_0.5)O₇ (BZTN) ceramics are investigated. The ceramics were sintered in air at temperatures ranging from 850° to 1000 °C. BZTN ceramics with small amount of MgO addition can significantly increase the density and improve the dielectric properties. It is found that MgO doped BZTN ceramics can be sintered at 900 °C to obtain a density higher than 94 % of the theoretical density. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations show that the BZTN grain sizes increase with increasing amounts of MgO. No secondary phases in the MgO doped BZTN ceramics were observed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. A high dielectric constant of 220, a low dielectric loss of 0.02 % and a stable temperature coefficient of capacitance (ΔC/C ∼ ±12 % in the temperature range from −55 to 125 °C) were obtained for 0.5 mol.% MgO-doped BZTN ceramics sintered at 900 °C for 2 h.

In this study, LaF₃–LaOF:Yb³⁺/Ho³⁺ upconversion (UC) phosphors were synthesized via a solid-state reaction and their optical properties were analyzed. The analysis of photoluminescence (PL) characteristics revealed strong emission at a wavelength of 543 nm for molar ratios of La:Yb:Ho = 1:x:y, where x = 0.04–−0.06 and y = 0.01–−0.03. The pump power dependence of phosphor PL and the fluorescence lifetime were then measured, and the mechanism of UC PL is discussed.

Microstructural control of CaO–Al₂O₃–SiO₂ (CAS) glass-ceramics (GCs) bearing metastable CaAl₂Si₂O₈, a layered crystal, from a parent glass having a single composition was achieved by increasing the amounts of WO₃ and carbon used as sources of metallic W particle nucleation agents. The average crystal size increased from 9.3 to 49 µm when the amount of WO₃ and carbon were increased fivefold in the preparation of CAS GCs. To investigate the effect of WO₃ and carbon separately, glass cullet containing WO₃ was mixed with glass batches containing carbon and then melted to form glass specimens with different amounts of WO₃ and carbon. Upon crystallization of these glass specimens, the average crystal size increased from 9.0 µm to 43 or 49 µm when the amount of WO₃ or carbon was increased fivefold, respectively. The results indicate that changing the amounts of WO₃ and carbon is necessary to control the CAS GC microstructure.

The selectively enhanced micro area crystal growth of ZnO nano- and microwires on GaN on sapphire substrates by mist chemical vapor deposition (mist-CVD) was demonstrated. Micropatterns of a thin Au layer were formed on the surface of a GaN crystal by a simple technique. ZnO nano- and microwires with high crystal growth rates were grown on the micropatterned thin Au layer, resulting in selectively enhanced microarea crystal growth. The lengths of some ZnO nano- and microwires were more than 15 µm for 30 min crystal growth.