Soshi Iimura

Creation of intermediate temperature fast hydride ion conductor utilizing interstitially mechanism and investigation of the diffusion mechanism

Researcher

Soshi Iimura

Outline

Recently, control of chemical reaction by applying electric fields has attracted attention. This research focuses on interstitialcy ion diffusion mechanism, which is one of the many-body motions of ions, and aims to create a intermediate-temperature fast hydride ion conductor that contributes to electrolytic hydrogenation reduction reactions. In addition, the many-body dynamics of hydride ions is investigated using neutron scatterings.

Hirohisa Ohmiya

Development of Organocatalysis Enabling Controlled Reactions by Electrons

Researcher

Hirohisa Ohmiya

Outline

This project seeks to develop a new type of catalyst system that can actively control electrons by combining light energy with an organic catalyst. This catalyst system will be used for novel chemical reaction process to synthesize high-value organic molecules from readily available chemical raw materials simply, quickly and without waste.

Yasutaka Kuwahara

Development of innovative CO2 conversion process using plasmonic photoreaction field of oxygen deficient molybdenum oxide

Researcher

Yasutaka Kuwahara

Outline

This study aims to develop a plasmonic catalyst technology that is capable of selectively transforming chemically-stable CO2 into methanol by utilizing surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and oxygen defect sites of oxygen-deficient molybdenum oxide. I will design and fabricate a plasmonic photoreaction field suitable for CO2 activation by controlling the electron density and oxygen defect density in the molybdenum oxide crystal, and will achieve CO2-methanol conversion at a lower temperature through SPR-induced efficient conversion of light energy to chemical energy.

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Development of Photochemical Reaction Platforms Driven by Magntic Field Enhancement Effect of Mie Resonances

Researcher

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Outline

The purpose of this project is to develop a novel platform to achieve the optical excitation of molecules via spin-forbidden transition and demonstrate a new photochemical reaction route. In this project, I focus on the effect of magnetic field at the optical frequency on the electronic transitions of the matter. Utilizing the designed nanostructures of high refractive index materials that exhibit a large magnetic field enhancement by Mie resonances, the efficient excitation of the singlet-triplet transitions in target molecules will be achieved. By developing novel nanostructures and scalable reaction platforms, a novel reaction route based on dipole-forbidden photochemistry will be realized.

Masayuki Suda

Creation of innovative electrochemical reactions based on active control of spin angular momentum

Researcher

Masayuki Suda

Outline

“The chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect” describes the selective transport of electron spins through chiral molecules. The aim of this study is to develop novel electrode materials which can create highly-spin-polarized current based on the “multiple CISS effect”. Furthermore, utilizing this novel electrode, I will create innovative electrochemical reactions; multiplicity-selective electrochemical reactions and electrochemical asymmetric reactions which can not be realized by a unpolarized current.

Shuntaro Tsubaki

Catalytic thermochemical conversion of lignocellulose driven by electromagnetic waves

Researcher

Shuntaro Tsubaki

Outline

This study aims to establish a novel technique to control catalytic reaction by precisely applied electromagnetic field to achieve thermochemical conversion of lignocellulose at very mild reaction condition. The following three topics will be conducted in this study; (1) development of solid catalyst activated by applied electromagnetic waves based on the dielectric properties of materials, (2) development of a precisely controlled electromagnetic wave reaction system, and (3) understanding of the mechanism of the electromagnetic wave effects by in situ spectroscopic measurements, and establishment of method to controll catalytic reactions by applied electromagnetic waves.

Shinya Furukawa

Development of highly efficient catalytic systems using the combination of surface protonics and intermetallic compounds

Researcher

Shinya Furukawa

Outline

Surface protonics under electric field is a promising technology that breaks the limitation by thermodynamic equelibria. Intermetallic compounds are useful inorganic materials that drastically improve catalytic performance. In this study, by combining the advantages of surface protonics under electric field and intermetallic catalysts, truly innovative catalytic systems that show noy only reactant conversion exceeding equilibrium conversion but also high product selectivity. The target reactions are propane dehydrogenation to propylene and carbon dioxide hydrogenation to methanol, where drastic decrease in catalyst working temperature and pressure are achieved, respectively.

Takuro Hosomi

Developing high-selective catalytic reactions by actively controlling arrangements of surface ions

Researcher

Takuro Hosomi

Outline

The main purpose of this project is to develop molecular specific reactions on single-crystal inorganic surfaces and clarify their origins and principles. These plans are based on an accidental finding that a metal-oxide nanowire which has a well-defined ionic arrangement on its surface showed high molecular discrimination ability to aliphatic compounds in a resolution of one-carbon level. In addition, the researcher will develop a methodology to control the molecular reactivity and selectivity of the single-crystal surface, by actively controlling the arrangement of the surface ions. This method is expected to create a new principle to design catalytic systems that simultaneously achieve high molecular selectivity and high robustness.

Seiji Yamazoe

Development of new catalytic reaction system using vibration energy

Researcher

Seiji Yamazoe

Outline

In this project, vibro-catalyts, which activates molecules using vibration energy, and vibro-catalytic reactor are designed and developed to establish a new vibro-catalytic reaction system using low-frequency vibration as an energy source. The fundamental technology of the vibro-catalytic reaction system is established and high-active vibro-catalysts are developed to elcidate the effect of structural parameters on the catalysis and the reaction mechanism of the vibro-catalytic reaction by operando spectroscopy.

Eisuke Yamamoto

Active conｔrol of the ionic conductive atomically thin film and preparation of ionics materials conducting at low temperature

Researcher

Eisuke Yamamoto

Outline

In this project, I will make change the conventional oxide materias (CeO2, ZrO2) as the ionics materials showing gigantic ionic conduction at low temperature through nanosheet technique and precise design of the materials. In addition, I will actively control the ionic conductivity by appling the electric field using the modulation characteristic of nanosheets, which will lead to the construction of a foundation for innovative nano-ionics materials.