Tatsuki Nagatsuka

Filters and Films for Liquid Crystal Devices

The research on birefringence and polarization has a long history and began with the discovery of light polarization by the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens in 1690 when he was experimenting with two calcite plates. Then, Etienne L. Malus accidentally discovered that the light reflected at an angle from the windows of Luxembourg Palace was polarized, which he reported in 1809, and in 1812 David Brewster announced the law of light polarization by reflection and refraction, which now takes his name. Furthermore, William Herapath discovered in 1852 that a synthetic crystalline compound, iodoquinine sulfate (also called herapathite), can polarize the light of all wavelengths in the visible region, a phenomenon that is now the underlying principle of current absorption-type polarizers.

Binder Effect on Photocatalytic Performance of TiO2 Solution Coating Layers

Abstract In fabrication process of photocatalysts, solution coating process has been expected to become a promising technique because of practical advantages of productivity. This process is, however, far from practical use for the reason of tecchnical problems. One of the most difficult problems is to immobilize the photocatalysts powder because final photocatalytic performance of coating layer was strongly affected by the immobilization process. In order to investigate the immobilization process, TiO2 coating layers prepared by solution coating method with two different kinds of binder have been investigated. One binder was silicone alkoxide, and the other was silicone emulsion. SEM, XPS, and gas chromatography analyses were carried out, and it was revealed that in the coating layer using the solution mixed with emulsion binder, porous surface was formed and the photocatalytic activity of gas decomposition was enhanced.