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Tsukahara Lab
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A lab that builds tiny chemical factories to separate and collect rare metals.
AboutAbout the lab
Chemistry that keeps resources and energy in circulation.
The Tsukahara Lab is working to create chemical processes that enable the circulation of resources, the environment, and energy.
The lab uses materials synthesis that combines organic and inorganic components at the molecular level, along with nanotechnology such as microfabrication.
It creates organic-inorganic hybrid materials and devices in which sequence, structure, interfaces, and space are skillfully controlled.
Built on analytical chemistry, solution chemistry, polymer chemistry, and nuclear and radiochemistry, the research also connects with physics, mechanical engineering, and biology.
Key terms
- Rare metals
- Metals that exist in only small amounts on Earth or are difficult to extract. They are essential for electronics and other products.
- Stimuli-responsive polymers
- Polymers whose properties change greatly in response to external changes such as temperature, pH, or light.
- Micro/nano chemical systems
- Systems in which chemical operations are built into channels, thinner than a human hair, made on a substrate.
NewsLab news
Developed a functional PDMS sponge that separates and recovers molybdenum
Established a method for measuring isotope ratios of trace cesium in soil with high precision
Two master's students won Poster Awards at the international conference GXI-ZES
ResearchResearch themes
The lab creates materials and devices that combine organic and inorganic components at the molecular level, and uses their distinctive functions to build chemical processes that enable the circulation of resources, the environment, and energy. The research rests on two pillars: recycling, which turns waste back into resources, and reducing environmental impact.
*Illustrative imageSelecting metals out of waste liquid
The lab synthesizes stimuli-responsive polymers, whose properties change with temperature or pH, and develops rare metal separation materials that selectively adsorb and desorb only the target metals. Trivalent lanthanide ions can be taken up and released simply by raising and lowering the temperature, without any organic solvents, acids, or alkalis.
*Illustrative imageAbsorb, squeeze, recover
The lab has immobilized ligands that selectively bind metal ions on the surface of a porous PDMS sponge. Metals can be recovered just by squeezing the sponge after it has absorbed them, and by changing how hard it is squeezed, even trivalent rare earth elements can be separated and extracted in order of ionic radius.
*Illustrative imagePutting radioactive waste to use in medicine
Focusing on the radium and molybdenum contained in radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, the lab works on precisely separating and recovering these elements and recycling them as radiopharmaceuticals. It also evaluates their cytotoxicity as therapeutic and diagnostic agents.
*Illustrative imageA palm-sized chemical factory
Using semiconductor processing techniques, the lab makes microscopic channels on glass or silicon substrates and builds mixing, reaction, separation, and detection into them, a field known as micro/nano chemical systems. The goal is a device that can separate metal ions of different valences from one another within seconds, just by letting waste liquid flow through.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Tsukahara Lab consist of faculty, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, research students, and researchers.As of 2021
- ProfessorTakehiko TsukaharaPublications ↗
- Assistant ProfessorNaokazu IdotaPublications ↗
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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: “Rareearthoxides” Peggy Greb, US department of agriculture / Public domain (cropped)
- Selecting metals out of waste liquid: “Recycled Electronics - Circuit Boards ( )” Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Absorb, squeeze, recover: “Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine, Mountain Pass, California ( )” Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Putting radioactive waste to use in medicine: “Drytec Technetium Generator ( )” IAEA Imagebank / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- A palm-sized chemical factory: “Microfluidic chip for point-of-care medical devices” FMNLab / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Takao Lab): “Cross-section of TRISO fuel pellet” ENERGY.GOV / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Nakazono Lab): “B-cyclodextrin” Materialscientist / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Ito Lab): “Diamond by Peter Smyth” Peter Smyth / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Inagi Lab): “Portrait of Polycyanoborani” Tavo Romann / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
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