Fukushima family

The first report of a wet chemical processing of ferroelectric thin film was by Fukushima et al. in 1975 [18]. They reported the use of a mixed alkoxide and organic salt precursors in the fabrication of BaTiOs film. Application of sol-gel processing for the PZT thin films was started in 1984 by Wu et al. [19] and Fukushima et al. [20] and followed by Budd et al. in 1985 [21]. More recently, continuing efforts in the processing of PZT family thin films by sol-gel and MOD methods can also be found in the literature [22-27]. 

Layered silicates belonging to the smectite clays family can be delaminated or exfoliated in the formation of the well-known polymer-clay nanocomposites initially developed by Fukushima and Inagaki at the Toyota Central Laboratories [54]. In a similar way, Letaief and Ruiz-Hitzky [55] using silicon alkoxides able to promote sol-gel processes have successfully achieved the hydrolysis and polycondensation of Si(OR)4 compounds within the interlayer space of smectite clays giving rise to a silica network with the concomitant delamination of the silicate layers [8,55-57]... 

---