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NEW YORK (October, 03 2007) - KURARYLIVING Co., Ltd. (Kuraray) and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Mitsui) announced today to launch electrical conductive fiber coated with carbon nanotubes (CNT). This coating technology was developed with CNT aqueous solution supervised by Prof. Bunshi Fugetsu at Hokkaido University.

Kuraray and Mitsui exhibit products using this fiber at K 2007 17In this time, we have established CNT network forming technique by the combination of the homogeneously dispersed CNT in the aqueous solution and the precise dyeing method through the development of CANA-AN™. We are now going to apply this technique for the coating of polyester fabric and other type fiber materials in order to develop a new product utilizing the unique characters of CNT. Kuraray and Mitsui are pleased to announce this launch with CNT while taking care its product safety. th International Trade Fair, Plastic + Rubber on October 24-31, 2007 in Dusseldorf Germany. (Refer to Appendix) The product name is "CANA-AN™".
(CANA-AN: Carbon Nanotubes Aftertreatment Network)

Prevention of static electricity or anti-static materials reduce not only discomfort of electrical shock in daily life but also risks to damage computer files, to have financial loss caused by defects of electronics parts manufacturing and occasions to explosion with volatile gases. The market size for electrical conductive fibers utilized for anti-static products is exceeds $30 million, where the major product is a mono-filament coated with electro-conductive carbon black paste and a conjugated melt-spinning fiber made by electro-conductive carbon compounded polymer. The leading usages are anti-static clothing, canvas, exhaust/ ventilation filters and carpet.

Kuraray has developed CANA-AN™ by the coating technique based on precise dyeing method onto polyester multifilament directly with MWCNT supplied by Mitsui. In this method, dispersed CNT in the aqueous solution is homogeneously absorbed onto fiber surface to form effective network without any modification of CNT. The strong points of CANA-AN™ are:

(1) Stable conductivity

Electrical conductivity reaches 10² to 10¹⁰Ω/cm and adjustable at the narrow range by the control of the amount of coated CNT and its network forming owing to homogeneous dispersion. Especially, 10⁵Ω/cm conductivity, requested for anti-static fabric, is also available.

(2) All surface conductivity

All surface of each filament consisting the multifilament CANA-AN™ is coated by CNT, it performs well surface electro-conductivity.

(3) High durability

• Because a strong binder fits CNT on the surface of fiber, CNT elimination is negligible in regular usage. The fabric incorporating CANA-AN™ performs well anti-static efficacy after 20 times washing. And, electro-conductivity keeps almost similar level even just before breaking by elongation.

(4) Soft touch

So far, the each filament size of the major electro conductive fiber is relatively big, and the fabric incorporating such fiber feels harsh. On the other hand, the each filament size of CANA-AN™ is small and adjustable to the size of the base fabric's filament. So, it can realize a soft touch anti-static fabric.

In this time, we have established CNT network forming technique by the combination of the homogeneously dispersed CNT in the aqueous solution and the precise dyeing method through the development of CANA-AN™. We are now going to apply this technique for the coating of polyester fabric and other type fiber materials in order to develop a new product utilizing the unique characters of CNT. Kuraray and Mitsui are pleased to announce this launch with CNT while taking care its product safety.

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