PRESS RELEASE
1-6-2 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8246 Japan

December 19, 2023

Zeon Participates as Special Co-Sponsor in 18th Grand Contest on Chemistry for High School Students,Supporting High School and Technical College Students Pursuing Chemistry with Passion and Curiosity
Zeon Corporation
Zeon Corporation (Zeon; head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Tetsuya Toyoshima) participated as a special sponsor
in the 18th Grand Contest on Chemistry for High School Students, hosted by the Shibaura Institute of Technology. The contest has
been held since 2004 to support the learning and research activities of high school students and technical college students (thirdyear and below), encourage students to nurture their scientific creativity while enjoying self-initiated, exploration activities, anddevelop human resources capable of demonstrating their abilities in scientific fields. The Zeon Challenge Award, selected fromour unique perspective, was presented to the Super Science Club of Toyama Prefectural Toyama Chubu Senior High School.
The contest is also known as the “Koshien of Chemistry,” named after Japan’s national high school baseball championship, and thefinal round was held in Tokyo in October 2023. A total of 304 students from 80 teams that passed the first round of documentary
screening took part in 70 poster presentations and 10 oral presentations.
Through our sponsorship of this contest, Zeon will continue to support the development of human resources who will lead the next
generation.
Zeon Challenge

Controlling the shape of NaCl crystals by changing the pH of carboxylate ions used as a crystallization modifierAward(Super Science Club, Toyama Prefectural Toyama Chubu Senior High School)

Oral presentation by Toyama Chubu Senor High School

Members of the Super Science Club of Toyama Chubu Senior High School

Comment from the Super Science Club of Toyama Chubu Senior High School upon receiving the award
Our research on the shape of salt crystals began five years ago with an unexpected discovery. When we added sodium polyacrylate tosaturated brine, regular octahedral crystals precipitated, regardless of the concentration or degree of polymerization. This led us tobelieve we could control the shape of salt crystals by varying the pH to change the structure of the carboxy groups of sodium
polyacrylate. We would like to express our gratitude for recognizing our research process to date, which has involved meeting a seriesof challenges.
Comment from Zeon Corporation Chief Judge
Congratulations to the Super Science Club of Toyama Chubu Senior High School for winning this award. Creating salt crystals is anexperiment which many of us must have experienced in our elementary school days. I thought you came up with a brilliant theme byincorporating the latest wisdom on crystallization modifiers to this common experiment. It is very important to understand the essenceof chemical experiments. I believe that unraveling chemical mechanisms is the true purpose of these experiments and what makes
them so interesting. I hope you will continue to boldly take on challenges in your steadfast pursuit of their essence.
Kei Sakamoto, Chief Judge, Zeon Challenge Award (Incubation Center)

For more information, contact:
Department of Corporate Communication, Corporate Sustainability Division, Zeon Corporation
Phone: +81-3-3216-2747
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