Profile
| March, 2012 | Doctor of Engineering (The University of Tokyo) |
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| April, 2012 | Research Fellowship ,National Institute for Material Science (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, PD) |
| November, 2012 | Tenure Track Assistant Professor, University of Yamananashi |
Research Filed
Artificial Photosynthesis, Electrochemistry, Photochemistry, Solid-State Physics
Development of Multi-electron Transfer Catalyst
Sunlight is the most abundant and sustainable source of energy available to humanity. Earth receives solar energy at the rate of approximately 120,000 TW per year. This is about 8,000 times larger than the energy which is consumed annually worldwide. Thus, artificial photosynthesis, which converts solar energy into chemical energy, has attracted much attention as a potential means to solve global warming and energy problems.
For the construction of artificial photosynthetic systems, development of multielectron transfer catalysts is one of the most important issues. Multielectron transfer catalysts have the ability to accommodate and transfer multiple electrons to reaction substrates at one time. In biological systems, metalloenzymes embedded into protein scaffolds are known to undergo the multielectron transfer processes, in such as oxygen reduction, water oxidation, nitrogen fixation, and sulfate reduction, and enable chemical reactions to proceed without forming radical intermediates. These abilities are distinct from sequential-redox processes composed of several individual one-electron redox steps in equilibrium and energetically more favorable than sequential one-electron transfer process. However, underlying principles of how multiple electrons participate in a reaction at one time remained unsolved. We are developing multielectron transfer catalysts based on ideas inspired by knowledge from various research fields such as solid-state physics and biochemistry.
