We will continue to be a manufacturing company aiming to become an “innovative, development-driven company.”
Based on our core technologies of electrolysis, fluorination, and particle control, we have developed and established original technologies related to our strengths in chlorination, miniaturization, high purification, organic/inorganic synthesis, coating, polymerization, and more.
By combining the technologies we have built up with our manufacturing know-how, we support the world’s most advanced technologies with unique and superior products in the fields such as the environment and energy, electronics and information communications, life sciences and healthcare, and recycling, aiming to become an “innovative, development-driven company.”
Content of Research-and-Development Activities
Specialty Gases
For specialty gases for semiconductor manufacturing, the market strongly demands high performance and environmentally friendly features in etching and cleaning applications. We will continue to develop semiconductor materials with high added values that meet market needs, including the products in the KSG® series, and will introduce them to the market whenever ready.
At the R&D site located in our manufacturing base in South Korea, we will expand facilities and develop a material evaluation system to promote customer-oriented R&D operations.
Battery Materials
In order to ensure a stable supply of rechargeable battery materials, which are becoming increasingly important from the perspective of economic security in energy, we are steadily developing lithium recycling from waste LIBs. This recycling is selected for the NEDO Green Innovation Fund Project.
We are also striving to acquire evaluation technologies to accelerate the development of next-generation battery materials such as solid-state batteries and fluoride batteries, in addition to development of various materials aimed at improving LIB performance.
Ferrochemicals
We are working in collaboration with our manufacturing subsidiaries and sales departments to develop carriers for developers for image forming devices such as copiers and printers, which are advancing in high performance and multifunctionality. To manufacture carriers, we use iron, ferrite, magnetite, and other materials with an average particle size of 30 to 100 μm as core materials and coat them with various resins on their surfaces.
New Materials
We develop various fluorinated compounds with fluorination technology where fluorine gas and other fluorine-based specialty gases are used as fluorination agents, as well as our unique electrolytic fluorination technology where various fluorinated compounds are synthesized in an electrolyte mainly composed of anhydrous hydrofluoric acid.
Not just in the electronic materials field, we are also focusing on the life sciences field, including the development of medical materials that are core to enteral Enteral Ventilation via Anus technology
More on Electrolytic and Fluorination Technologies
Based on our core technology, particle control technology, we carry out the whole process of nanoparticle development—from the synthesis to the dispersion—in-house. By specializing in particle sizes from single nanometers to several tens of nanometers and applying unique surface treatments that optimize particle characteristics, we have achieved the development of high-performance nano-dispersions tailored to specific purposes. We can meet advanced needs in material design and coating processes.