Hiroshi Shoji

Photoinduced Cooperative Orientation and Pattern Formation in Copolymer Films with 4-Methoyazobenzene and Benzoic Acid Side Groups

Photoinduced cooperative molecular reorientation in liquid crystalline (LC) methacrylate copolymers with hexamethylene spacer groups terminated with 4-methoxyazobenzene and benzoic acid in the side chain, and the influence of the copolymerization ratio on the thermally enhanced photoinduced molecular reorientation behavior were investigated. All copolymers exhibited a LC phase, and sufficient thermally enhanced photoinduced in-plane molecular reorientation was achieved by irradiating with linearly polarized (LP) UV light and subsequent annealing when the azobenzene composition was greater than 5 mol%. Adjusting the exposure energy and the polarization of the LPUV light attained a patterned oriented structure, which can be useful as alignment layer for functional materials. Finally, a patterned birefringent film was fabricated using photocurable liquid crystals on the patterned copolymer film.

Study on time of adding calcium salt during crystallization process for zeolites containing calcium.

For the zeolites containing calcium, which are superior catalysts in high temperature MTO conversion, the effect of the time of adding calcium salt during the crystallization process on the physical properties and the catalytic performance was studied. It was found that large amounts of calcium were contained in the zeolite when calcium salt was added before or during the crystallization, while calcium was hardly done after the completion of it. It indicated that there were at least two kinds of modification states of the acid sites with calcium, because calcium contained by the addition of calcium salt before the crystallization was hardly ion-exchanged with potassium ions, while calcium during the crystallization can be done. Further, it was confirmed by methanol conversion that the amounts of calcium contained affected the yields of ethylene and propylene.