Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Hiroko Niwano

Tomoko Teranishi

Akio Miyata

Shinichi Nakano

Shinich Nakano

In a display device including: an upper space (display space)provided on a display surface side; and a colored liquidthat is sealed inside the upper spaceso as to be operable and is colored in a predetermined color, which is structured so as to be able to change a display color on the display surface side according to application of an electric field to the colored liquid, the colored liquidcontains a conductive liquid as a dispersion medium and a pigment of a self-dispersing type as a coloring agent. Thereby, the display device that can improve display quality and have high durability that enables to maintain an excellent displaying function over a long period of time, and the electric apparatus using the display device can be provided.

Display device and electric apparatus using the same

In a display device that includes a display space provided on a display surface side and a liquid sealed inside the display space so as to be operable and is constituted so as to be able to change a display color on the display surface side according to an application of an electric field to the liquid, the liquid is an ionic liquid containing an ambient temperature molten salt combining a cation and an anion. Further, an amount of water blended in the liquid is 0 to 10 parts by weight with respect to 100 parts by weight of the ionic liquid. This makes it possible both to reduce a voltage to be applied to the liquid so as to allow driving at a low voltage and to improve an operation performance.

An ionic colored liquid according to the present invention moves with a voltage application, and contains as principal components at least a coloring material whose base material is a pigment, and an ambient temperature molten salt combining a cation and an anion. The coloring material has a mean volume particle diameter of equal to or smaller than 5 &#x3bc;m and a coefficient of variation in a volume particle size distribution of equal to or smaller than 50. In an image display apparatus according to the present invention, a surface energy of the ionic colored liquid () is varied according to whether or not a voltage is applied to the ionic colored liquid (), thereby moving the ionic colored liquid () or increasing/decreasing a surface area of the liquid on a display surface side, so that an image is displayed. In this manner, the ionic colored liquid can be dispersed stably in a dispersion medium and applied to an electric-field induction type electronic paper display or the like.

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Tokyo, Japan

Hiroko Niwano