January 16, 2026
Company:Nippon Paint Holdings Co., Ltd. Representative:Yuichiro Wakatsuki
Director, Representative Executive Officer & Co-President
Wee Siew Kim
Director, Representative Executive Officer & Co-President Contact:Ryosuke Tanaka
Corporate Officer
General Manager, Investor Relations, Sustainability and Public Relations

Joint Research Project with the University of Tokyo Honored with Poster Award at the 86th JSAP Autumn Meeting

Under an industry–academia co-creation agreement, Nippon Paint Holdings Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; hereafter “the Company”) is conducting joint research with the University of Tokyo. In recognition of these efforts, a research group consisting of members of the Tatsuma Laboratory, Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, headed by Professor Tetsu Tatsuma and Assistant Professor Seung Hyuk Lee, and Mr. Hirotaka Ogawa, Researcher at Nippon Paint Co., Ltd. (hereafter “the Group”), a subsidiary of the Company, was awarded the Poster Award at the 86th Autumn Meeting of the Japan Society of Applied Physics.

The Meeting took place from September 7 to 10, 2025, at Meijo University’s Tempaku Campus, with approximately 8,400 attendees and a total of 983 poster presentations over four days. Of these, 18 posters were selected for the Award, and the Group was honored in the Applied Materials Science division.

The outcomes of this research are expected to advance analytical methodologies and the practical use of paints and coating films, while also enabling the development of higher value-added coatings through nanoparticle technologies. In addition, from a sensor-technology standpoint, the Group seeks to substantially reduce coating defects by improving the precision of incoming raw material inspections.

Presentation Details

Plasmonic Refractive Index Sensor Using ITO Nanoparticle Ensembles Fabricated by Laser Ablation

Key Findings

1.    ITO nanoparticles were synthesized without protective agents using a laser ablation technique (Note 1).

2.    Near-infrared refractive index sensing (Note 2) was achieved using substrates modified with the synthesized ITO nanoparticles, confirming that variations in the surrounding refractive index induce wavelength shifts and enable high sensitivity and sensing performance.

3.    The underlying mechanism governing the refractive index sensitivity characteristic of ITO was elucidated, providing design principles for the development of novel plasmonic refractive index sensors.

Conventional synthesis of ITO nanoparticles is generally carried out in organic solvents, necessitating the use of surface-protective agents that may hinder sensing performance. In this study, a protective-agent-free synthesis method for ITO nanoparticles was established. This approach allows ITO nanoparticles to be readily synthesized and supported under ambient conditions without the use of liquid media or organic protective agents. The resulting technology is expected to contribute to sensing-based analysis of paints and coating films, and to applications aimed at enhancing the functional value of coating materials.

Glossary

Note 1: Laser Ablation
Laser ablation is a processing technique in which extremely short pulses of high-energy laser light are used to vaporize the surface of a material. This enables highly precise, non-contact processing of a wide range of solid materials, including metals, glass, and ceramics. The technique is widely applied across diverse fields, such as corneal surgery, semiconductor device fabrication, thin-film production, and material analysis using LA-ICP-MS.

Note 2: Sensing
Sensing refers to technologies and methods that detect and measure the state or changes of various physical quantities or substances, such as temperature, pressure, light, or chemical composition, using sensors or related devices, and convert these signals into electrical data. By sensing changes in refractive index, it becomes possible to evaluate the properties of paints and coating films.

The Nippon Paint Group will continue to leverage the outcomes of its collaborative research to deliver safety and peace of mind to society and to contribute to social value creation at an early stage.