An organosulfur compound cathode material was prepared by hot-pressing a mixture of polyacrylonitrile nanofiber nonwoven and sulfur on carbon paper substrate at 300°C. The organosulfur compound showed good heat resistance above 500°C. The organosulfur cathode showed high capacity of over 600 mAh g^-1, long cycle life more than 1,000 cycles, and wide temperature range of -30°C to 60°C. Energy density per weigh of the organosulfur cathode was twice the conventional positive materials.

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A conductive paper for shielding electromagnetic waves was produced by mixing pulp fibers with plated pulp fibers, obtained by subjecting disintegrated pulp fibers to electroless nickel plating to impart conductivity to the surfaces, and subjecting the resultant mixture to papermaking. The plated pulp fibers have surfaces covered with metal, and hence, the hydrogen bonds that pulp fibers generally possess do not contribute to the bonding between plated pulp fibers. For this reason, it has conventionally been difficult to manufacture paper from plated pulp fibers. To overcome this difficulty, a conductive paper was prepared from a mixture of plated and unplated pulp fibers. The conductivity of the formed conductive paper was improved by increasing the plated pulp fiber ratio. As a result, both the surface and volume conductivities increased, thus improving the shielding effectiveness against the electric field components of electromagnetic waves. Furthermore, to improve the electromagnetic shielding performance, conductive layers containing plated pulp fibers and insulating layers containing only pulp fibers were stacked on one another to form a multilayer conductive paper. In conductive paper with stacked conductive layers, increasing the number of conductive layers by two increased the electromagnetic shielding effect from 3 dB to 24 dB. A conductive paper with three conductive layers achieved a general electromagnetic shielding effect of about 30 dB at frequencies of 10 MHz to 1,000 MHz.

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Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)-containing pulp handsheets were prepared by internal additions of a cationic polymer (CP) and CMCs with various degrees of substitution (DS) ranging from 0.49 to 1.29 to pulp slurries. The influence of the DS of CMC on dry- and wet-tensile strengths of the CMC-containing handsheets was studied. CMC contents in the handsheets were controlled to be almost equal for all the handsheets by controlling the CP addition level. Almost no influence of the DS values of CMCs ranging from 0.63 to 1.29 on the highest dry-tensile strengths was observed for the handsheets, when CMC contents in the handsheets were almost equal. Wet-tensile strengths of the handsheets soaked in solutions consisting of ethanol, water and calcium chloride with various weight ratios similarly decreased for all CMC-containing handsheets with increasing water content of the soaking solutions, irrespective of the DS of CMCs. However, wet-tensile strength of the handsheets increased with increasing the DS of CMC, when ethanol content of the soaking solutions was approximately 20%. The obtained results indicate that the amount of CMC-COO^-Ca²⁺Cl^- structures formed between CMC and CaCl₂ in the handsheets during the soaking treatment primarily contributes to the wet-strength development.

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By the unique crazing process with sharp bending and tensile stress, the voids of the crazes were generated in polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) films. The tensile strength of the crazed PP and PS films was almost unchanged after the crazing processing, while Young's modulus decreased with the crazing tension increasing. The gas permeability of all the PP and PS films increased with the crazing tension because of the increase in void fraction. The crazes of PP and PS films penetrated completely in the direction of film thickness above 4 N/cm and 5 N/cm, respectively, of the crazing tension. Permeation model was proposed on the basis of the relationship between the measured gas permeability and the void fraction in the films. The gas permeability of the crazed films was estimated by the combination of the parallel and the series models which were constituted of the crazed and non-crazed regions in parallel or serial order in the direction of gas permeation.

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Strain 9-003 was isolated from soil in the textile dying factory for its ability to assimilate disodium terephthalate (DT) as a carbon and energy source. Analysis of the base sequence of 16S ribosomal DNA allowed us to assign the bacterium to Rhodococcus sp., the strain reduced a total concentration of DT from 95.2 to 40.8 mM for 7 d, and showed highest degradation rate (1.0 mM/h) in pH 7.0 culture broth at 25°C, 180 rpm. Oxygen uptake experiments with the resting cells showed the biodegradation process was aerobic. HPLC analysis of the culture broth revealed there was at least one intermediate-protocatechuic acid (PC) involved the microbial degradation process. Substrate spectrum indicated strain 9-003 assimilated DT, PC and p-hydroxybenzoic acid efficiently. The degradation path way of DT was discussed and we propose that DT was metabolized aerobically by Rhodococcus sp. 9-003 via PC.

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