Low-molecular-weight gelators bearing 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO) were synthesized by amidation reactions with DiC and DMAP. The gelators formed the thermally-reversible gels in various organic solvents and electrolytes. The minimum gelation concentration against γ-BL including lithium salts increased as compared to that of neat γ-BL. The increase of minimum gelation concentration is due to the dielectric constant of γ-BL increased by addition of lithium salt. TEM image of xerogel of loose gel in γ-BL exhibited clear fibers with a diameter of ~100 nm, while the image of γ-BL including lithium salts showed slender fibers, suggesting the interruption of the growth of fibers by lithium salts. The gel strengths of the gels containing lithium salts decreased as compared to that of neat γ-BL, indicating that the lithium salts obstructed the growth of fibrous aggregation. Electrochemical measurements, including cyclic voltammetry and cell performances proved the redox property and a plateau output voltage with rapid chargingdischarging process. Although the half-cell performance is not good enough, the CV performance of the gels comfirmed the stability of the gelators.

The phenomenon, when a polypropylene single fiber was rubbed by a razor, was investigated, and morphology of the rubbed fiber was observed. In particular, presence or absence of occurrence of friction vibration on the razor during rubbing was paid attention. In this study, an original friction and wear testing machine, which can change the free-end length of the razor, the testing tension and the testing speed, was used. As a result, when the free-end length of the razor 0.1 mm, friction vibration was not generated on the razor and a part of fiber surface was scraped off equally. However when the free-end length of the razor 1.0 mm, friction vibration was generated on the razor and bumps were formed periodically on the fiber surface. It is because of increase of spring constant of the razor by increase of the free-end length of that. Moreover,press-fitted depth of the razor deepened and also the period of bumps (the structure period) increased, as the testing load increased. On the other hand, the structure period decreased, as the testing speed increased. This tendency was reverse to a tendency which was derived from a model of the friction vibration. However negative speed dependence of friction coefficient, which was reported by many researchers, can explain the former tendency. In conclusion, when spring constant of the razor is low, friction vibration occurs on the razor. Furthermore, friction vibration on the razor changes morphology of damage on the fiber significantly, and forms periodic bumps on the fiber.

Zeolite-containing composite sheets are useful as filters to decontamination of radioactive ionscontaining water, compared with zeolite powders. Based on various preliminary results, we prepared zeolitecontaining composite sheets from zeolite powders with different particle sizes, binder polymer with different binder/zeolite weight ratios, and three nonwoven fabrics. The binder/zeolite mat was sandwiched between the two nonwoven fabrics by thermal pressing. The water filtration performance and the amount of detached zeolite particles during filtration, and the adsorption performance of strontium ions in water were studied in terms of the binder/zeolite weight ratio, the particle sizes of zeolite, and others. The water filtration performance was the highest when the nonwoven fabric with the lowest basis weight was used in the composite making at the binder/zeolite weight ratios ranging from 25 to 70 %. The amount of detached zeolite particles during filtration was, however, the highest when the nonwoven fabric with the lowest basis weight was used. The composite sheets containing zeolite powder with the largest particle size had the highest filtration performance (or shortest filtration time) and the lowest amount of detached zeolite particles during the initial filtration. The adsorption performance of strontium ions in simulated seawater for the zeolitecontaining composite sheets were almost similar to those of zeolite powders alone under equilibrium conditions. Thus, the Sr²⁺ adsorption performance of zeolite powder was almost maintained for the zeolitecontaining composite sheets at the same zeolite content. As a result, the balance between the Sr²⁺ adsorption and filtration performances should be taken into account in designing the zeolite-containing sheets for practical use.