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Functional Materials Lab
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A lab that looks inside materials with electron microscopes to develop materials for fusion reactors and hydrogen storage.
AboutAbout the lab
Bringing out the power of materials to support energy.
The Functional Materials Lab researches how to bring out the functions and properties inherent in materials and put them to practical use.
Using electron microscopes, it examines nanoscale structures and changes in special environments in structural materials for fusion reactors and in hydrogen-storage alloys.
The lab also works on improving materials by irradiating them with high-energy particle beams to enhance their performance.
The basic knowledge gained is applied to developing and improving materials.
Key terms
- Fusion reactor
- A reactor that fuses light atomic nuclei together and aims to generate electricity from the energy released in the process
- Irradiation
- Hitting a material with high-energy particles such as electron beams or ion beams
- Environmental cell
- A small chamber that makes it possible to observe a specimen inside an electron microscope while it is exposed to gas or other environments
NewsLab news
A serial lecture on high-entropy alloys was published in ATOMOΣ, the journal of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan
A paper by a doctoral student was published in the Journal of Nuclear Materials
A paper on MAX phases by a doctoral student was accepted by Ceramics International
A student received an Encouragement Award at the Winter Meeting of the Hokkaido Branches of the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan and the Japan Institute of Metals and Materials
ResearchResearch themes
The lab aims to bring out the functions and properties inherent in materials and connect them to practical use. Focusing on structural materials for fusion reactors and hydrogen-storage alloys, it uses electron microscopes to study nanoscale structures and how phases that do not normally appear are formed.
*Illustrative imageHydrogen-storage materials
The lab studies metal-based materials that absorb large amounts of hydrogen. By placing an environmental cell inside an electron microscope and examining the reactions in which hydrides form and decompose at the nanoscale, it gathers the information needed to develop catalysts that aid these reactions.
*Illustrative imageStructural materials for fusion and nuclear reactors
The lab studies structural materials for fusion reactors, a near-future energy source. It evaluates irradiation properties by exposing materials to high-energy beams such as electron beams and ion beams, aiming to create materials that resist irradiation.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Functional Materials Lab are faculty, secretaries, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, and international students.As of 2026
- ProfessorNaoyuki Hashimoto
- Associate ProfessorShigrhito Isobe
- Associate ProfessorHiroshi Oka
- Special Assistant ProfessorHaotian Sun
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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: “UFP Tokamak COMPASS foto Stanislava Kyselová, AV ČR (1)” Akademie věd České republiky / Czech Academy of Science (photo by Stanislava Kyselová) / CC BY-SA 3.0 cz (cropped)
- Hydrogen-storage materials: “Titanium hydride TiH2” Sa123 / CC0 (cropped)
- Structural materials for fusion and nuclear reactors: “The Advanced Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory ( )” Nuclear Regulatory Commission from US / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Advanced Materials Hybrid Engineering Lab): “Atomic force microphotography of copper nanoparticles” Dr Anatoly / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Energy Media Conversion Materials Lab): “Molten iron from the blast furnace” UCL Engineering / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Light and Heat Energy Conversion Materials Lab): “Such different zinc oxide - nanoflowers network” Andrey P. Tarasov / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Chemical Systems Engineering Lab): “Wind power plants in Xinjiang, China” 林 慕尧 / Chris Lim from East Coast (东海岸), Singapore (新加坡) / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
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