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Catalyst will play a pivotal role in developing a sustainable society, because catalysts have the potential to solve the problems concerning energy, resources, and health by converting inexpensive materials to highly valuable compounds under mild conditions with high atom efficiency and low E-factor of the chemical reaction.

The research of our group is currently directed towards the development of high-performance heterogeneous catalysts for environmentally-friendly chemical processes by designing solid surfaces at atomic or molecular levels. In particular, our attention is focused on creation of nano-structured multifunctional catalysts, through the design of catalytically active species for important reactions that contribute to solving issues concerning energy and resources. We believe that the creation of well-defined active metal sites on a solid surface not only opens up an avenue to materials that boost catalytic performance, but also aids an understanding of the molecular basis of heterogeneous catalysis.

Currently, we are striving to meet scientific challenges in combination with application-oriented research. These goals are pursued via four research topics:

1) Design of Solid Acids and Bases for Efficient Carbon-Carbon Bond-Forming Reactions on Water
2) Creation of Surface Metal Species for Selective Oxidations of Olefin and Benzene Using Molecular Oxygen as an Ideal Oxidant
3) Development of Multifunctional Catalysts for Utilization of Bio-Mass and Water
4) Elucidation of Catalytic Potentials of Metal Nanoclusters

Our group characterizes the structure of catalysts on the basis of expertise in a variety of experimental techniques, such as kinetic and temperature-programmed studies, chemisorption measurements, Solid-state NMR, FTIR and UVVIS Spectroscopies, Transmission and Scanning Electron Microscopies, X-ray diffraction. Our Institute is famous for advanced instruments. Through collaborations with facilities of Synchrotron Radiation such as SPring-8 (Harima, Japan) we also have access to highly specialized XAFS (X-ray Absorption for Fine Structure) equipment that allows determination of the structure of catalytic materials at the atomic level.

Furthermore, our achievements will lead the way to collaborations between chemistry, physics, and biology for creating the advanced materials that may solve the serious environmental problems facing us today, and spur public opinion and governmental policies towards constructing a sustainable society in the 21st century.