Iwatani started to deal with the production and sales of deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen). Sample delivery started at the end of June of this year.

In Iwatani’s General Technology Center (Amagasaki) a production facility was established to produce deuterium of 2,000㎘annually for supply filled in 47ℓcontainers (7MPa) to consumers in the fields of semiconductor, organic EL, optical fiber and pharmaceutical. Iwatani says that it is the first case to produce deuterium in Japan.

Deuterium is a stable isotope of hydrogen which has an atomic nucleus consisting of one proton and one neutron. Hydrogen ordinarily has one proton and is so-called light hydrogen. Among the whole hydrogen on the earth, light hydrogen accounts for 99.985% and there exists only 0.015% of deuterium. Deuterium is a colorless and odorless gas at a normal temperature and pressure, with a boiling point of -249.6℃which is nearly the same as light hydrogen, but its molecular weight of 4.029 is nearly two times larger than that of light hydrogen.

Deuterium which is heavier than light hydrogen has different physical properties and easily causes chemical reactions. For instance, as deuterium does not easily react (stable), some medicines, taking advantage of the feature, exchange part of hydrogenated synthesis extending the acting time with deuterium, contributing to the assurance of continuous pharmacological effects as a result.

Regarding the other fields of the industrial applications of deuterium, the future increase in demand can be most expected in the electronics industries like semiconductor or organic EL. There is annealing (heat treatment) of semiconductor by deuterium to prevent deterioration of the device of silicon semiconductor. Replacement with deuterium of the hydrogen atom just under the silicon-oxidized film is expected also here to enhance stabilizing effects.

To Iwatani there have been requests for the supply of deuterium from a major domestic device manufacturer for two years. However, almost all the domestic deuterium was depending upon importing from overseas suppliers. “We also considered first to procure by import, but decided to produce deuterium for ourselves taking into account that more demand can be expected in Asia and at home in the future. We took about one year for the preparation of production facilities.” (Satoshi Takechi, Advance Gas Dept. Manager)

Now that deuterium can be used for the materials to produce weapons, to import or export it is strictly controlled. Considering a stable procurement in the future, Iwatani stepped into its own production of deuterium.

Iwatani has not disclosed how to generate deuterium, but generally speaking, there is a concentration method using an electrolysis from heavy water. The applications of deuterium, as mentioned above, include annealing (heat treatment) in the semiconductor producing process, upgrading in efficiency of organic EL for luminescent material, the production of pharmaceuticals and optical fiber.

Manager Takechi says, “The market share of Japan is so small of 5% or so in the world that we wish to explore to get business chances targeting China which is expected to grow highly in both semiconductor and optical fiber fields.”

Deuterium is a new gas which gives the possibility of bringing an extensive sales territory in the most advanced fields other than semiconductor. Iwatani changed the name of electronics gas department selling the gas into “Advanced Gas Department” and has been reinforcing the sales promotion since this spring. Having heard Takechi’s comments that Iwatani is also preparing new gas products following deuterium, we keep our eye on Iwatani’s strategy for new gases.