The authors report the vertical alignment of liquid crystal (LC) through the ion beam exposure on amorphous oxygen-doped SiC (SiOC) film surfaces deposited at room temperature. The optical transmittance of these films was similar to that of polyimide layers, but much higher than that of SiOx films. The light leakage of a LC cell aligned vertically on SiOC films was much lower than those of a LC cell aligned on polyimide layers or other inorganic films. They found that LC molecules align vertically on ion beam treated SiOC film when the roughness of the electrostatic force microscopy (EFM) data is high on the SiOC film surface, while they align homogeneously when the roughness of the EFM data is low.

An O-alkylation reaction of hydroquinone with excess methanol was carried out by using alkaline metal ion-exchanged zeolite catalysts at various phases of methanol in a slurry type reactor. The amount of methanol, used as a methylating agent and also a solvent, significantly affected the reaction rate. When the amount of methanol was decreased from 2 mol to 0.6 mol, the reaction rate was increased more than nine times. These changes in the reaction rate could be explained by the pressure change and the phase transition of the reactant, methanol, depending on the temperature and the elimination of a diffusion limitation of reactants through the zeolite pores in a gas phase condition. Thus, higher than 89% selectivity to 4-methoxyphenol was obtained at 80% conversion of hydroquinone at a gas phase reaction condition using 1 mol of methanol for 2 hours.