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Catalyst Materials Lab, Institute for Catalysis
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The lab designs solid catalysts that support a sustainable society by combining experiments, theory, and data science.
AboutAbout the lab
Developing solid catalysts for a sustainable society.
The Catalyst Materials Division (Shimizu Lab) studies the design of solid catalysts needed for a sustainable society.
By combining experiments, theory, and data science, the lab aims to create new catalysts that solve energy and environmental problems.
Using computational science and a variety of spectroscopic methods, the lab investigates how catalysts work and develops guidelines for designing them.
The lab also pursues research in "catalyst informatics," which is based on data science and the theory of material properties.
Key terms
- Solid catalyst
- A catalyst in solid form. A catalyst is a substance that advances a chemical reaction without itself being changed
- Spectroscopy
- A method of learning the structure and state of a substance by shining light on it and examining the light it absorbs or emits
- Catalyst informatics
- Research that uses data science and machine learning to search for and design good catalysts
NewsLab news
Associate Professor Toyao received the 2025 Catalysis Society of Japan Encouragement Award
A master's student received the FCC Award at the master's thesis presentation
A student received the Best Poster Award at the NUS-ICAT Joint International Symposium
A student received the Excellent Research Award at the International Symposium of Institute for Catalysis 2025
A student received the Student Excellent Presentation Award at the 135th Meeting of the Catalysis Society of Japan
ResearchResearch themes
The lab designs solid catalysts needed for a sustainable society by combining experiments, theory, and data science. Its goal is to develop catalysts that solve challenges facing humanity, such as food and energy.
*Illustrative imageCatalysts that exploit metal-oxide interfaces
The lab develops solid catalysts for chemical synthesis that use as little scarce metal resources as possible, and for purifying the environment. Using the design of "interfaces," where metals with different properties, or a metal and an oxide, are brought close together, as a clue, the lab creates new catalysts.
*Illustrative imageMetal nanocluster catalysts
Aiming at chemical synthesis that uses less scarce metal and at purification of automobile exhaust, the lab develops new metal nanocluster catalysts that combine multiple functions and works to clarify how they work.
MembersFaculty
The Catalyst Materials Division consists of faculty, postdoctoral researchers, administrative assistants, students in the doctoral, master's, and undergraduate programs, research students, and visiting students.As of 2026
- ProfessorKenichi Shimizu
- Associate ProfessorTakashi Toyao
- Assistant ProfessorAkihiko Anzai
- Project Assistant ProfessorNazmul Dostagir
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Catalytic Converter ( )” Tino Rossini from Toronto, Canada / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Catalysts that exploit metal-oxide interfaces: “Catalyst nanoparticles” Luca Silvioli / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Metal nanocluster catalysts: “Catalytic converter ( )” Oak Ridge National Laboratory / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Catalytic Reaction Engineering Lab): “Nano-Legos” Snemani2023 / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Molecular Assembly Chemistry Lab): “Simulated structure of the water hexane interface” Cnrowley / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Energy Materials Chemistry Lab): “Solid oxide electrolyser cell 2x60cell stack” EERE / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Microsystem Chemistry Lab): “Microfluidic chip for point-of-care medical devices” FMNLab / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
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