The Dow Chemical Company

Dow Technology Investments LLC

Timothy L Allen

Aleksander Jozef Pyzik

Uday V Deshmukh

Kevin E Howard

Harold E Rossow

Stephen D Dunmead

Sten A Wallin

Todd R Bryden

Jack J Ott

Juliana G Serafin

Peter C Lebaron

Steven R Lakso

Jamie L Lovelace

The present invention provides porous body precursors and shaped porous bodies. Also included are catalysts and other end-use products based upon the shaped porous bodies and thus the porous body precursors. Finally, processes for making these are provided. The porous body precursors, comprise one or more topography-enhancing additives, i.e., additives that are capable of at least marginally enhancing one or more of surface area, aspect ratio, pore volume, median pore diameter, surface morphology, etc. Downstream products need not necessarily comprise the topography-enhancing additives in order to exhibit the benefits of their inclusion in the porous body precursors.

Porous body precursors, shaped porous bodies, processes for making them, and end-use products based upon the same

Subject boron carbide to a passivation treatment at a temperature within a range of 1350.degree. C. to less than 1800.degree. C. prior to infiltration with a molten metal such as aluminum. This method allows control of kinetics of metal infiltration and chemical reactions, size of reaction products and connectivity of B.sub.4 C grains and results in cermets having desired mechanical properties.

Light weight boron carbide/aluminum cermets

Use a material which has a coefficient of thermal expansion greater than silicon nitride and does not react with silicon nitride under hot pressing conditions either to fabricate or to coat hot-pressing die plates suitable for densification of silicon nitride. The die plates separate cleanly from the silicon nitride thereby allowing preparation of near-net shapes having complex geometries, but without post densification grinding or machining.

Method of preparing near-net shape silicon nitride articles and the

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Midland, MI, United States of America

Timothy L Allen