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Energy Materials Lab [Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research]
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The lab uses electrochemistry to explore materials that store, convert, and use energy.
AboutAbout the lab
Creating materials that store, convert, and use energy.
The Yamada Lab (Energy Materials) focuses on three processes of energy, namely storing, converting, and using it, and develops materials and technologies that contribute to solving environmental problems.
Aiming at lithium-ion batteries with higher performance and greater safety, and at new types of secondary batteries that go beyond them, the lab develops new materials with its own strategy of controlling the connection between ions and solvent molecules in the electrolyte solution (the coordination state).
In fuel cells, the lab is taking on the challenge of next-generation low-cost fuel cells that greatly reduce the use of expensive precious metals by creating single-atom catalysts.
In Power-to-X devices, which use electricity to synthesize high-value substances, the lab develops new catalysts with a focus on turning carbon dioxide into a resource.
Key terms
- Electrolyte solution
- A liquid that carries ions between the positive and negative electrodes of a battery. In lithium-ion batteries, it is made by dissolving a lithium salt in an organic solvent.
- Coordination state
- The state of how solvent molecules are arranged around and bound to an ion in an electrolyte solution.
- Single-atom catalyst
- A catalyst in which metal is dispersed one atom at a time. It uses atoms very efficiently and aims at designs that reduce the amount of precious metal needed.
- Power-to-X
- Technologies and devices that use electricity to synthesize fuels and high-value substances from water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and other sources.
NewsLab news
Students received awards including the Outstanding Student Presentation Award at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the Electrochemical Society of Japan
Associate Professor Yu Katayama received the Young Scientists' Award in the fiscal 2026 Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
A master's student received the Poster Award at the 29th SANKEN International Symposium
A master's student received the fiscal 2025 Kansai Electrochemistry Encouragement Award
A master's student received the Outstanding Student Presentation Award at the Electrochemical Society of Japan
ResearchResearch themes
The Yamada Lab focuses on three processes of energy, namely storing, converting, and using it, and develops innovative materials and technologies that contribute to solving environmental problems. While exploring the unknown functions and properties of electrochemical materials such as battery electrolyte solutions and catalysts, the lab works on developing new devices.
*Illustrative imageDevelopment of next-generation batteries
The lab develops new materials that are designed around how ions and solvents bind in the electrolyte solutions of lithium-ion batteries. It also works on new high-voltage, high-capacity reactions, new types of secondary batteries that use water, and analysis of the reaction mechanisms of charging and discharging.
*Illustrative imageInnovative fuel cells
The lab aims to turn the Pt catalysts of fuel cells into even smaller sub-nanoparticles or single atoms (individual metal atoms). It is trying to physically suppress aggregation by confining the metal in the two-dimensional nanospaces of layered materials.
*Illustrative imagePower-to-X: producing substances with electricity
The lab develops the foundational technologies of electrolysis devices that use electricity to produce next-generation fuels from water, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen. It also works on catalyst and electrolyte materials based on reaction mechanisms, and on electrocatalysts that use the nanoscale reaction environments of layered MnO2.
*Illustrative imageNew theories and new academic fields in electrochemistry
The lab is working to establish new theories on the chemistry and electrochemistry of liquid materials such as electrolyte solutions, in which an electrolyte is dissolved in a solvent. It aims to visualize reactions at the boundary between electrode and electrolyte solution (the interface) at the atomic level, and to control the interface actively.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Yamada Lab consist of faculty, postdoctoral researchers, students in the doctoral program (working professionals), the doctoral program, the master's program, and the undergraduate program, and administrative assistants.As of 2026
- ProfessorYuki Yamada
- Associate ProfessorYu Katayama
- Assistant ProfessorYasuyuki Kondo
- Assistant ProfessorYuta Takaoka
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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: “Electrode Slurry Mixing” RudolfSimon / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Development of next-generation batteries: “Electrode 2 (PSF)” Pearson Scott Foresman / Public domain (cropped)
- Innovative fuel cells: “Fuel cell NASA p48600ac” 作者不詳 / Public domain (cropped)
- Power-to-X: producing substances with electricity: “Alkaline water electrolyser” Kavin Teenakul / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- New theories and new academic fields in electrochemistry: “Electrochemical test cell” Hansjoachimkohnke / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
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- Related lab (Symbiotic Environmental Assessment Lab): “air quality monitoring station in Zürich” Balise42 / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
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