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Nabae Lab
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The lab tackles environmental and energy problems by creating catalysts from organic materials.
AboutAbout the lab
Making catalysts from organic and polymer materials.
The Nabae Lab studies the development of catalytic materials that take advantage of the characteristics of organic materials.
Catalysts promote chemical reactions and support environmental and energy technologies such as fuel cells.
The lab creates new catalysts from heat-resistant aromatic polymers and from carbon materials made by carbonizing polyimide microparticles.
By developing platinum-free catalysts for fuel cell electrodes, the lab aims to help solve environmental and energy problems.
Key terms
- Catalyst
- A substance that promotes a chemical reaction without being changed itself
- Fuel cell
- A device that directly generates electricity by reacting hydrogen with oxygen
- Polyimide
- A heat-resistant, nitrogen-containing polymer. Used in films and electronic components
NewsLab news
View More ↗ResearchResearch themes
The Nabae Lab develops catalytic materials that make use of the characteristics of organic and polymer materials. Using the hyperbranched structure of aromatic polymers and materials made by carbonizing polyimide, the lab aims to create catalysts that contribute to solving environmental and energy problems.
*Illustrative imageCatalysts from Branched Polymers
Aromatic polymers such as polyimide and polyetherketone are heat-resistant polymers. By introducing a highly branched hyperbranched structure into them and using the chain ends as active sites, the lab makes solid catalysts that are highly active and easy to separate and recover.
*Illustrative imagePlatinum-Free Fuel Cells
To make polymer electrolyte fuel cells widespread, the amount of platinum, a rare element used in the electrodes, must be greatly reduced. Focusing on carbon-based catalysts made by heat-treating nitrogen-containing polymers such as polyimide, the lab has demonstrated that they show excellent power generation performance even without platinum.
*Illustrative imageIron Complexes Mimicking Active Sites
In carbon-based catalysts, the FeN4 structure formed within graphene is considered important as the active site. To greatly increase the density of these active sites, the lab became the first in the world to succeed in designing and synthesizing a new iron complex with a 14-membered ring.
*Illustrative imageCarbon Riddled with Pores
When a block copolymer is mixed with a carbon source and a nitrogen source and allowed to self-assemble, a finely divided structure appears. By carbonizing this, the lab produces mesoporous carbons of various shapes and is working to apply them to electrocatalysts.
MembersFaculty
The Nabae Lab consists of faculty members, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, and researchers.As of 2025
- Associate ProfessorYuta NabaePublications ↗
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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: “Activated Carbon” Ravedave / CC BY 2.5 (cropped)
- Catalysts from Branched Polymers: “Romanesco broccoli texture” Ivar Leidus / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Platinum-Free Fuel Cells: “Platinum (Element - 78) 1” James St. John / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Iron Complexes Mimicking Active Sites: “Iron-phthalocyanine-3D-balls” 作者不詳 / Public domain (cropped)
- Carbon Riddled with Pores: “ActivatedCharcoalPowder BrightField” Zephyris / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (大井研究室): “Rusty bands of scrap iron” W.carter / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (早川研究室): “The Bird of Happiness” Strugalina / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (道信研究室): “1inchpolymersolarcell” Aromaticmoleculessmell / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (河村研究室): “Allegheny Ludlum foundry ladle” Alfred T. Palmer / Public domain (cropped)
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