153rd Committee on Plasma Materials Science
- Abstract of the symposium
Symposium: 18th International Symposium on Plasma Chemistry
Period: 26 (Sun) - 31 (Fri) August, 2007
Location: Yoshida and Katsura Campus of Kyoto University
Participants: 671 (Domestic:334，Oversea: 337)
VIPs: Bryan R. Henry (IUPAC President, University of Guelph, Canada),Mark J. Kushner (Dean of the College of Engineering, Iowa State University, U.S.A),Michael A. Lieberman （UC Berkeley, USA）,Riccardo d'Agostino (University of Bari, Italy)
Budgets: 36,447,000 JPY (including 1,500,000 JPY from JSPS) - Details of the symposium
The 18th international symposium on plasma chemistry (ISPC-18) has been hold at Kyoto University by JSPS-153, IUPAC and JSAP. This symposium is the most important international bi-annual conference for the plasma chemistry, on which the latest research works are presented comprehensively. This ISPC-18 is hold for the first time in 20 years since the 8th symposium (ISPC-8) has been hold in Tokyo.
The number of participants is 671 from 40 countries, of which almost half (337) of the participants are from overseas as shown in Table 1. This statistics represents international importance of research and development on this plasma materials science. The number of papers on each research topic is summarized in Table 2. We can see that the dominant topics are polymer/surface related topic and syntheses/coatings using thermal plasmas. This tendency is common feature for this symposium since its foundation. Recently, however, major interests of the participants have been shifting to the plasmas in high density media such as atmospheric-pressure gas and liquids, which has been one of the priority research areas in our committee. This tendency is also seen in the topics of microplasmas, bio-medical applications and environmental applications, which mean that the high-density-medium plasmas have been quite important from the view point of academic interests and industrial applications.
In this symposium, we have launched a brand new session of microplasmas. In spite of the fact that this is the original research topic proposed by the members of our committee, over 30% of the papers are presented by the researchers from overseas. This means that the microplasma research works have become important internationally. The hottest topic in this field is the plasma jets. The development of the plasma pens operated by small batteries will accelerate practical use of the microplasmas in the industries, which includes novel application areas such as in-vivo treatment of living tissues in addition to conventional surface treatment for the organic/inorganic materials. However, fundamental physics and chemistry of the microplasmas have not been discussed in the world, except in Japan. Industrial applications without understanding physics and chemistry of the apparent phenomena will certainly loose their development speed. Therefore, our committee must work for further development of this priority area.
In addition to these process oriented applications, some active researchers have presented novel applications in which the plasma itself becomes an active device like a conventional fluorescent lamp and PDP cell. The new devices proposed here are addressable flat fluorescent lamps, plasma arrays with capability of dynamic control of electro-magnetic waves, flexible fabric plasma devices, microplasma reactors, and so on. Although these applications are still on the research/development stage, we can expect novel market areas which cannot be realized by substitution of conventional technologies.
As mentioned above, many works on the plasmas in liquid media have been reported, in which one can expect physicochemical interactions at the plasma-liquid interface by igniting discharge in the micro bubbles formed in the liquid or on the liquid surface. At present, most of the papers have mentioned just only performance of their application such as materials syntheses and removal of contaminations. Fundamental aspects of the plasma-liquid interface reactions should be investigated hereafter by employing and/or developing diagnostics/modeling tools. Therefore, this topic has been taken into account as a priority research area in our committee.
ntal applications of plasma technologies, because Kyoto Protocol has been proposed here in Kyoto, and also because the environmental applications are important research topics in our committee. Compared with conventional environmental applications using only decomposition of hazardous materials, we have discussed possibilities of plasma technologies on recycling of rare materials and reducing CO2 emission for the purpose of realizing sustainable societies. Panel discussions brought by industries and academia in Japan, Korea, United States, Switzerland and Australia have clarified possible plasma applications and common issues for the recycling and CO2-emission reduction. Even though the main symposium has been finished before noon, almost half of the participants have stayed in the symposium venue for attending the workshop. This reflects that the plasma technologies are expected as possible solutions for environmental issues in the world. - Future prospects
The 153rd committee on plasma materials science is organized for the purpose of promoting plasma science and technology in Japan, which has been founded just after the ISPC-8 held in Tokyo 20 years ago. Recent statistics of the former ISPCs have revealed that Japanese researchers are playing important roles in this research and development field, which can be understood from a large number of participants and many plenary/invited talks from Japan. In the ISPC-17 held in Canada, the number of participants form Japan was larger than that from Canada. In the ISPC-18 held here in Japan, we have accomplished important role of organizer.
These developments of the plasma science and technology in Japan are considered to be due to continuous activities of our committee, in which we have selected and discussed important topics from academic, industrial and also social view points, and especially focused on the works pioneered in Japan such as atmospheric pressure plasmas. Through the organization of the ISPC-18, we have recognized that such activities by our committee are important also for organizing successful international symposium. Although the next ISPC in Japan is not planed yet, our committee would like to keep and accelerate our activities for further development of plasma sciences and technologies.
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| Figure 1. Symposium venue: Kyoto University | |
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| Figure 2. Oral session | |
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Figure 3. Poster session |
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