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We first synthesized ZnO porous ceramics with a giant permittivity of 104 and low dielectric loss using a high pressure treating method.

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A series of shock compression experiments on hexagonal α-Ce3Al have been carried out using a two-stage light gas gun. No phase transition was observed in the recovered sample shock compressed at 23.5 GPa. However, as the shock pressure was increased to 27.3 GPa, a face-centered cubic Ce3Al phase was detected in the samples recovered at ambient conditions. Furthermore, a Ce2Al phase was found in the 37.1 GPa shocked sample with a space group Fd-3m and lattice parameter a = 8.26(1) Å. These Ce-based alloys may have potential industrial applications due to the heavy-fermion related properties.

We report the preparation of nanostructured diamond-TiC composites with high fracture toughness and high hardness starting from a ball-milled mixture of nano-sized Ti3SiC2 and submicron-sized diamond by simultaneously tuning the pressure-temperature conditions. The phase segregation of Ti3SiC2 at pressure of 5.5 GPa were investigated by X-ray diffraction and high resolution transmission electron microscopy, we found that the Ti3SiC2 could decompose into nanosized TiC and amorphous Ti-Si at 600–700 °C. The subsequent reaction between diamond and Ti-Si led to an amorphous Ti-Si-C matrix in which diamond and TiC crystals are embedded. With a loading force of 98 N, the measured fracture toughness KIC and Vicker's hardness HV of the synthesized composites reach up to 14 MPa m1/2 and 45.5 GPa, respectively. Our results demonstrate that the nanocrystalline/amorphous bonding matrix could largely enhance the toughness of the brittle composites.