Functional Inorganic Materials Engineering Lab

AboutAbout the lab

Creating catalyst materials designed at the atomic level.

The Functional Inorganic Materials Engineering Lab aims to create highly functional catalyst materials that give precise control over chemical reactions, by controlling the structure of inorganic materials such as metal nanoparticles, metal oxides, and porous materials at the atomic level.
From a chemical engineering perspective, the lab designs catalytic reactions, and also works on developing energy-efficient reaction processes that use special reaction environments such as microwaves and low-temperature plasma.
The lab also researches environmental catalysts that remove pollutants emitted by chemical plants, automobiles, and other sources. It aims to put into practical use a reaction process that can build compact, low-cost reactors, as a countermeasure technology for small- and medium-scale sources of VOCs.
The lab's website presents it under the name “Einaga-Hojo Lab.”

ResearchResearch themes

The lab views catalysts as a key technology for solving energy and environmental problems, and works on designing and developing long-lived catalyst materials that show high activity and selectivity in a variety of environments. It hybridizes inorganic materials such as metal nanoparticles, metal oxides, and porous materials while controlling their structure at the atomic level, and develops energy-efficient reaction processes that also use special reaction environments such as microwaves and low-temperature plasma.

*Illustrative image

Structure-controlled metal-supported catalysts↗

Next-generation functional materials are required to far exceed existing materials in performance and stability. With the required function in mind, the lab pursues research under the banner of “nano-meso-macro hierarchical control of function and structure,” in which materials are made with nanoscale control from the design and synthesis stages.

*Illustrative image

Catalytic properties of complex metal oxides↗

The lab investigates the physical properties and catalytic properties of ABO3-type perovskite oxide and AB2O4-type spinel oxide catalysts. By controlling them through changes in the preparation process and constituent elements, it aims to develop highly functional catalyst materials. It has also found that changing the preparation process promotes the benzene oxidation reaction.

*Illustrative image

Environmental catalyst technology for removing pollutants↗

The lab develops catalyst materials and reaction processes that efficiently remove pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by chemical plants, automobiles, and other sources. For low-concentration VOCs, it studies catalytic oxidation using ozone as the oxidant; for high-concentration VOCs, it studies a microwave heating process that uses complex metal oxides as catalysts.

VoicesStudent voices

Ratings and reviews reflect the experiences of individual current or former students, not the lab's official views. Whether a lab has reviews, or how many, says nothing about the lab itself.

Students who take part in an interview may receive a thank-you gift worth ¥1,000, regardless of what they say.