The present invention relates to laser-markable polymers and coatings which are distinguished by the fact that they comprise tin/antimony oxide-coated spherical TiO.sub.2 particles of defined particle size as laser additive.

In one embodiment, an antibacterial material includes at least one microparticles selected from tungsten oxide microparticles and tungsten oxide complex microparticles. The microparticles, which have undergone a test to evaluate viable cell count by inoculating in a test piece, to which the microparticles are adhered in a range of 0.02 mg/cm or more and 40 mg/cm or less, at least one bacterium selected from among Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli, and storing for 24 hours, have an antibacterial activity value R of 0.1 or more expressed by the following: R=log(B.sub.1/C.sub.1) where, B.sub.1 denotes an average value (number) of viable cell count after storing an untreated test piece for 24 hours, and C.sub.1 denotes an average value (number) of viable cell count after storing the test piece on which the microparticles are coated for 24 hours.

The present invention is concerned with a reactive surfactant composition for emulsion polymerization, which is able to micronize the particle diameter of a polymer emulsion and to reduce the addition amount of the reactive surfactant composition to be used.

The reactive surfactant composition for emulsion polymerization of the present invention contains a reactive anionic surfactant (component A) represented by the following formula (I), the component A being satisfied with the following requirement R:

##STR00001## wherein AO represents an alkyleneoxy group having a carbon number of 3 or more and 18 or less; E represents an ethyleneoxy group; p represents an integer of 1 or more and 15 or less; m represents an integer of 0 or more; n represents an integer of 0 or more; M.sup.+ represents a hydrogen ion or a cation; and plural kinds of AOs may coexist.

Requirement R: An average addition molar number m of AO is a number of 1 or more and 50 or less; an average addition molar number n of EO is a number of 0 or more and 200 or less; and when in the component A, a component having an addition molar number of AO of (m3) or less is defined as (component A-1), and a component having an addition molar number of AO of (m+2) or more is defined as (component A-2), X in the following formula (I) is less than 30, provided that when m is less than 3, (m=0) is defined as (component A-1):

X={(molar number of component A-1)+(molar number of component A-2)}(molar number of component A)100(I).

Method of producing a high strength (with improved tensile strength and elongation at break properties), high quality, cost effective, nanoparticle enhanced polyurea, polyurethane, and epoxy composites with chemical bonding into polymer backbone. The mechanical properties of tensile strength and elongation at break improves concurrently and significantly with tensile strength increasing well over 300%. The polymer/nanoparticle composite can be produced cost effectively as a high quality coating system or in nanoparticle concentrate forms.

Embodiments provide a hard coat layered film having a first hard coat, a second hard coat, and a transparent resin film layer in order from an outer layer side, the first hard coat including (A) 100 parts by mass of a polyfunctional (meth)acrylate including 20% by mass or more of a tripentaerythritol acrylate, (B) 0.01-7 parts by mass of a water repellent, and (C) 0.01-10 parts by mass of a silane coupling agent, the first hard coat being formed from a coating material not including inorganic particles, and the second hard coat including (A) 100 parts by mass of a polyfunctional (meth)acrylate and (D) 50-300 parts by mass of inorganic fine particles having an average particle diameter of 1-300 nm. According to at least one embodiment, component (A) may be a mixture of tripentaerythritol acrylate and one or more species selected from the group consisting of dipentaerythritol acrylate, monopentaerythritol acrylate, and polypentaerythritol acrylate.

A colored paint that imparts a superhydrophobic surface on an object is a suspension of hydrophobic particles in a polymeric binder and a plasticizer in a solvent or mixed solvent, wherein at least a portion of the hydrophobic particles are colored particles. Colored particles can be ultramarine, iron oxide, chromium oxide, or any other colored metal oxide. The hydrophobic particles can be metal oxide particles that are surface functionalized with a fluorinated alkyl silane or an alkyl silane. The binder is a mixture of PDVF and PMMA in a ratio of 3:1 to 10:1. The plasticizer is a mixture of triethyl phosphate and perfluoro(butyltetrahydrofuran) or other perfluorinated hydrocarbon. Surfaces coated using this paint display contact angles in excess of 150 and resist abrasion.

A silver powder, wherein the silver powder satisfies D.sub.50-IPA>D.sub.50-W, where in measurement of a volume-based particle size distribution of the silver powder by a laser diffraction particle size distribution analysis, D.sub.50-IPA (m) is a cumulative 50% point of particle diameter of the silver powder when isopropyl alcohol (IPA) is used as a measurement solvent for dispersing the silver powder, and D.sub.50-W (m) is a cumulative 50% point of particle diameter of the silver powder when water is used as a measurement solvent for dispersing the silver powder, and wherein a phosphorus content in the silver powder is 0.01% by mass or more but 0.3% by mass or less.

A conformal coating composition for protecting a metal surface from sulfur related corrosion includes a polymer and metal nanoparticles blended with the polymer. In accordance with some embodiments of the present invention, an apparatus includes an electronic component mounted on a substrate, metal conductors electronically connecting the electronic component, and a polymer conformal coating containing metal nanoparticles overlying the metal conductors. Accordingly, the metal nanoparticle-containing conformal coating is able to protect the metal conductors from corrosion caused by sulfur components (e.g., elemental sulfur, hydrogen sulfide, and/or sulfur oxides) in the air. That is, the metal nanoparticles in the conformal coating react with any corrosion inducing sulfur component in the air and prevent the sulfur component from reacting with the underlying metal conductors.

A surface treatment solution for a plated steel sheet to be hot-pressed comprising a ZnO aqueous dispersion (A) and a water dispersible organic resin (B), wherein the ZnO aqueous dispersion (A) comprises water and ZnO particle size having 50 to 300 nm particles, the water dispersible organic resin (B) has a 5 to 45 mgKOH/g acid value and 5 to 300 nm emulsion particle size, and a mass ratio (W.sub.A/W.sub.B) of a mass of ZnO particles in the ZnO aqueous dispersion (W.sub.A) to a mass of solid content of the water dispersible organic resin (W.sub.B) is 30/70 to 95/5.

A method for roughening a surface of a substrate, including: applying a composition containing inorganic particles and organic resin to the surface of the substrate and drying and curing the composition to form an organic resin layer; and etching the substrate by a solution containing hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen peroxide, or an acid, to roughen the surface. Preferably, the solution contains hydrogen fluoride and ammonium fluoride or hydrogen peroxide and ammonia, the resin layer contains a ratio of the particles to the resin of 5 to 50 parts by mass to 100 parts by mass, and the composition is a mixture of silica sol wherein silica is dispersed as the inorganic particles in organic solvent or titanium oxide sol wherein titanium oxide is dispersed, with a solution of the organic resin.