Toner contains multiple additives for expression of various functions. Toner is designed and manufactured by arranging these additives to ensure the most effective expression of relevant functions. Therefore, to manufacture toner according to its design, it is important to understand the actual shape of toner particles produced and internal conditions thereof. To examine internal structures having a particular particle size, toner particles of 4-6 μm were analyzed by ultra-high voltage electron microscope (UHVEM) tomography. Tomographic analysis provided complete information about three-dimensional distribution of wax and pigments. Furthermore, this method showed the presence of charge control agent over the toner surface.

We have prepared organic conducting nanocomposite particles which utilize polypyrrole and polyaniline as conducting parts and small inorganic oxide particles including silica and indium tin oxide as dispersants. The nanocomposite particles represent a potentially useful processable form of polypyrrole and polyaniline, normally intractable conducting polymers. Transmission electron microscopy studies confirm that the conducting polymer-inorganic oxide nanocomposites are made up of microaggregates of the original small inorganic oxide particles, which give rise to a distinctive “raspberry” particle morphology. The particle diameter of the nanocomposites as measured by the TEM observation can be varied over the range 110-470nm depending on the colloid synthesis conditions. The electrical conductivities of conducting polymer-inorganic oxide nanocomposites are lower by at least an order of magnitude relative to bulk powder prepared under the same condition. We confirmed that these conducting polymer-inorganic oxide nanocomposites can be utilized as processable form of conducting polymers due to their high colloid stabilities.

The effect of the organic solvents which gave it to drying process of minuscule droplets of aqueous solution of the organic solvents on vinyl chloride film which is used for outdoor signboard and poster in the image formation technology by using an ink-jet printer was investigated. When the organic solvent which has penetration property into the vinyl chloride film was used, it was hard to give an effect to evaporation property of water in aqueous solution of that organic solvent due to penetration of that organic solvent was started after water was evaporated. On the other hand, when the organic solvent which has no penetration property into the vinyl chloride film and evaporation rate is lower than that of water was used, it was easy to give an effect to evaporation property of water in aqueous solution of that organic solvent due to surface area of droplet increased if it has an effect to lower the contact angle of aqueous solution of that organic solvent for vinyl chloride film. Additionally, When the organic solvent which has no penetration property into the vinyl chloride film and evaporation rate is higher than that of water, it was hard to give an effect to evaporation property of water in aqueous solution of the organic solvent even if the organic solvent which has an effect to give lower contact angle on vinyl chloride film due to the effect was difficult to maintain by it' s higher evaporation rate than water.

The volume magnetic susceptibility of particles had the highly possibility of practical particle analysis. The particle volume magnetic susceptibility was calculated by the magetophoretic method which was observed individual particle migration velocity around high magnetic field gradient area. In this study, the analytical observations using official and recycled commercial ink and two different types of commercial toners were compared by the magnetopohretic method. As the results of the particular measurement, the observation of the volume magnetic susceptibility based on their physical and chemical properties revealed the difference and interrelationship of particles between the volume magnetic susceptibility and particle volume. In addition, the different formed Cu phtalocyanine can be found in the difference by their volume magnetic susceptibility.

States of pigment dispersion affects the various ink properties. The degree of dispersion and the interaction between the dispersed pigment particles are dependent on the mill base formulation. Fundamental aspects to design the mill base formulations are discussed mainly from the view point of the interfacial phenomena between pigments, dispersants and solvents.

Recent progress in the pigment dispersion technology such as novel grinding mills and pigment dispersants prepared by the controlled polymerization methods are briefly introduced.

In this paper, synergists are considered for the preparation of pigment dispersion inkjet ink. It was confirmed that any ion-type synergist can improve the dispersibility of pigment in inkjet ink.

In the future, high-performance pigment dispersion ink made using synergists is expected to contribute to inkjet printing expanding into many more kinds of applications.

The techniques to investigate drying processes of paint and ink dot using digital holography is presented. The proposed technique based on holographic interferometry can analyze local variation of paint films in drying process by using a phase change between two subsequent reconstructed complex amplitudes of the reflected light from the film. The technique has been applied to assess the drying process of commercial paint. For the tiny ink dot having diameter of a few hundred micrometers, digital holographic microscopy can be applied to monitoring a variation of ink dot surface in the drying process. This paper describes the outline of these holographic techniques and shows some experimental results for commercially available paint and ink.

DNA containing ink composition can be used in writing or printing of letters, images, and various codes. More specifically, it is used for printing securities, cards, foods, coating areas of cars, and the like. This technology is suitable for personal authentication or judging the authenticity by vermilion ink-pads or various coloring tools. Until now, they imagine that it takes a long time to extract DNA from DNA Ink printed matters, and requires so many steps. But we found a simple method for DNA extraction from printed matters without any damage of ones. This method is called “Direct DNA Transfer”. The DNA sequence is determined easily by PCR technology or (and) hybridization method.

Conductive boron-doped diamond powder (BDDP) was prepared by the deposition of a BDD layer on insulating diamond powder. An ink containing BDDP and a binder was used for fabrication of screen-printed diamond electrodes as an application of the BDDP ink to functional electrode material. The BDDP-printed electrodes were found to exhibit low background current, leading to larger signal-to-background (S/B) ratios than those of conventional carbon-printed electrodes that are used for disposable electrochemical sensors. A glucose sensor was fabricated by coating an immobilized glucose oxidase film onto a cobalt phthalocyanine/BDDP-printed electrode, and was found to exhibit excellent glucose detection, especially at low concentrations, and a stable baseline current. In addition, a BDDP-printed electrode fabricated using an ink with a large binder/BDDP ratio exhibited highly sensitive electrochemical detection based on the random microelectrode array effect. Thus, BDDP-printed electrodes show enormous potential as disposable and highly sensitive electrochemical sensors.

Inkjet printers, especially, single-pass types are progressing significantly. It is strongly expected to replace conventional types of rotary and flat bed screens to the new types. In order to ensure bringing inkjet printers into the full production, it is indispensable to meet the market requirements. First of all, as the role of inks is very important, there are a lot of new approaches from the ink side;increasing color strength including darker blacks to reduce unnecessary water, brighter colors to cover up wider color space, new dye type of Vat to improve colorfastness, improved pigments as universal colorants to handle all materials with a single ink set. On the other hand, proposals can be seen from the printer side as well.

Inkjet ink formulation can be challenging as the ink has to meet two seemingly contradictory requirements : it has to remain stable and not dry out during storage and while in the printhead nozzles prior to jetting, while at the same time it has to dry rapidly to form a durable coating once the ink droplets reach the substrate. In addition, the formulation has to meet the fluidic requirements to jet from thousands of extremely small nozzles repeatedly and reliably at high jetting frequencies. In this paper aspects of each of these three areas are considered : methods for controlling ink drop latency in open nozzles, fluidic physical property requirements for reliable jetting and the importance of the pigment volume ratio in determining final ink properties on non-porous or slightly porous substrates.

Recently, the decreasing of birth rate is serious problem in Japan. We approach to this problem by affective imaging. The information of genes is appeared on face and we can scan this information, then we are judging the compatibility to own reproductive activity. At this time, change of biological information is expected to give the effective information of the judgment. In this short review, we will introduce the results of the analysis for the biological information when the observers are evaluating the attractiveness of the female. Heart rate variability is analyzed by using the method of Poincare plot. The gazing information is captured by using eye-camera, and black part in the center of the eye is analyzed with image segmentation method. We found that there is a correlation between the attractive female for the observer where the face is displayed on the monitor and change of biological information.