A particle is provided that includes a first material and a second material, arranged to provide a Fano resonance effect, for example in the visible portion of electromagnetic spectrum. The first and second materials may be substantially clear in the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The first material may include an inorganic material, such as SiO.sub.2, TiO.sub.2, HfO.sub.2, ZrO.sub.2, diamond, or a combination thereof. The second material may include a polymer. The first material has a first refractive index and the second material has a second refractive index, where the first refractive index and second refractive index have a difference of 0.5 or greater, and 1.0 or less. The first material may form a core and the second material may form a shell surrounding the core. Alternatively, the first and second materials may form a Janus particle, an asymmetric dimer, or an aggregate.

The present invention relates to white fine particles from which a white ink that is capable of satisfying both of high hiding power and good bending resistance in a printed material can be obtained, and further relates to white fine particles from which an ink that is capable of satisfying not only excellent fixing properties even when printed on a non-liquid absorbing printing medium such as a resin film, but also suppression of increase in viscosity of the ink and at the same time good deinking properties at a high level can be obtained. The present invention provides [1] white fine particles containing titanium oxide and a polymer component with which the titanium oxide is encapsulated, in which a titanium atomic fraction of a surface of the respective white fine particles as measured at a photoelectron takeoff angle of 45° by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is not more than 7 atomic %, [2] a water-based ink containing the aforementioned white fine particles, in which the titanium atomic fraction of the surface of the respective white fine particles as measured at a photoelectron takeoff angle of 45° by XPS is not more than 5 atomic %, and [3] a process for producing a dispersion of white fine particles, including step 1 of mixing titanium oxide and a polymer dispersant to obtain a titanium oxide dispersion and step 2 of adding a polymerizable monomer to the thus obtained titanium oxide dispersion to subject the polymerizable monomer to polymerization reaction, thereby obtaining the dispersion of the white fine particles, in which a titanium atomic fraction of a surface of the respective white fine particles as measured at a photoelectron takeoff angle of 45° by XPS is not more than 7 atomic %.

The present invention relates to a method of dispersing fine particles in an aqueous or polar solvent. The dispersant comprises a compound of general formula (I): In general formula (I), AO is an alkylene oxide group selected from ethylene oxide and propylene oxide, R.sup.1 is selected from a methyl group, an ethyl group, a propyl group, a butyl group, and a pentyl group, R.sup.2 is a carboxylic acid terminated group comprising 1 to 5 carbon atoms between the carboxylic acid and the polyalkylene glycol group (-(AO).sub.n—O—), and n is 2 to 100. A dispersion of nanoparticles comprising the dispersant, use of the dispersant, and a method for dispersing nanoparticles is also disclosed.

A particulate TiO.sub.2 includes a TiO.sub.2 content of at least 99 wt.-%, an anatase content of at least 98 wt.-%, a primary crystallite size X.sub.50 of at least 200 nm, a numerical fraction of TiO.sub.2 with a primary crystallite size of at most 100 nm of at most 10%, a specific surface area of at most 8 m.sup.2/g as determined by BET measurements, 1200 ppm to 2400 ppm of alkali with respect to the TiO.sub.2 content, an Al content of 1 ppm to 1000 ppm, expressed as Al and with respect to the TiO.sub.2 content, a weight ratio of Al.sub.2O.sub.3 to Nb.sub.2O.sub.5 of from 0.17 to 0.74, and 0.1 wt.-% to 0.3 wt.-% of P, expressed as phosphorus and with respect to the TiO.sub.2 content.

An object is to reduce the occurrence of aggregation of an inorganic pigment that roughens the texture and dulls the color of a cosmetic containing the inorganic pigment. Porous pigment particles are provided which include cellulose or a cellulose derivative, and an inorganic pigment as main components. Also provided are a method for producing such particles, and a cosmetic containing such porous pigment particles. The particles are resistant to aggregation and are excellently dispersed in a base material to impart a color while improving the dullness problem. The particles of the present invention are porous particles that contain cellulose and have a wrinkle-like or fold-like uneven structure on the surface thereof (that is, have an appropriate amount of pores or voids). Thus, the particles of the present invention have soft and comfortable texture and are suitably added to cosmetics that are directly applied to the skin.

The complex functional pigment according to the present invention can effectively functionalize paints while minimizing the content of pigment added to a paint composition, that is, the solid content of a paint composition, for functionalization such as heat insulation, sound insulation, beautification, weather resistance, durability, chemical resistance, antibiotic properties, surface hydrophilization/hydrophobicity and the like, and even when added in a high content in the paint composition, it has an effect of excellent dispersibility. In addition, since the color realization area of a coating film is wide, various colors can be implemented, and it also has an effect that it is easy to adjust to the desired color.

The disclosure relates to a conductive particle and a manufacturing method thereof, an adhesive and an application thereof. The conductive particle includes a core, a conductive carbon layer and a conductive polymer layer. The conductive carbon layer covers the core, and the conductive polymer layer is provided on the conductive carbon layer. The conductivity of the conductive particle is higher.

Providing a white pigment dispersion that shows good storage stability because the white pigment contained therein is less likely to sediment, an ink composition comprising the white pigment dispersion, and a method of image formation using the ink composition. A white pigment dispersion comprising at least a specified white pigment, a polymeric dispersant, and an aqueous liquid as a solvent or dispersion medium, wherein; the specified white pigment is a titanium dioxide that has been surface-treated with at least alumina, the polymeric dispersant has a structure with a principal chain having a pigment adsorption group and a water-soluble molecular chain grafted to the principal chain, the overall weight-average molecular weight of the polymeric dispersant is in the range of 2000 to 50000, the weight-average molecular weight of the graft chain is in the range of 150 to 3000, and the difference between the lightness value L of the coating film from the pre-centrifugation white pigment dispersion and the lightness value L of the coating film from the post-centrifugation supernatant liquid is less than 25.

The invention provides pigment particles and an organic modification layer formed on a surface of the pigment particles; the organic modification layer is a surfactant layer or a polymer material layer formed on the surface of the pigment particles; an organic matter content over the specific surface area W.sub.surf of the pigment particles is in a range of 0.1-2% g/m.sup.2. The surface-modified pigment particles provided by the invention have good stability, and the electrophoretic display prepared by using the surface-modified pigment particles of the invention has good optical performance.

For the cosmetic field, omniphobic cosmetic pigments under the form of a core shell structure: the core is or includes of a metal oxide on which is adsorbed poly(β-(1.fwdarw.4)-D-glucosamine) chains; the chains being acetylated, or partially or totally deacetylated. Also, the process for manufacturing the omniphobic cosmetic pigments, including: (i) preparing an acidic aqueous solution including metal oxide particles and a poly (β-(1.fwdarw.4)-D-glucosamine), the poly (β-(1.fwdarw.4)-D-glucosamine) being acetylated, or partially or totally deacetylated; and (ii) increasing the pH until 12, of the solution obtained at step (i) in order to obtain the adsorption of said poly (β-(1.fwdarw.4)-D-glucosamine on the metal oxide particles and the precipitation of the resulting metal oxide particles coated with the poly (β-(1.fwdarw.4)-D-glucosamine.