Department of Biobased Materials Science,
Graduate School of Science and Technology
Laboratory of Environmentally Benign Polymeric Materials
Research topics
1. Pressure-processable polymers
Some polymer mixtures show pressure-induced phase transition at a constant temperature, termed as Baroplastics. Especially, binary systems have been intensively studied, and a block copolymer composed of a low-Tg and a high-Tg polymers flow under pressure at ambient temperature. This can be explained by a reversible pressure-induced phase transition between an ordered or phase-separated (solid) state and a disordered or miscible (melt/solid) state at the temperature. The low-temperature formability not only allows the energy saving processing with CO2 mitigation, but also suppresses polymer degradations often seen in conventional melt-processing with enhancing the recyclability. In this research group, degradable baroplastics was developed from renewables, which are expected as a next generation environmentally benign functional polymers.
In this group, mechanism of the pressure-induced phase transition is elucidated. R&D of baroplastics have been investigated, which would hold potential to be “game-changing polymeric materials”.
2. CO2 capture technologies
CO2 mitigation is an urgent task to suppress the Global Warming and Climate Change, and CO2 capture and Storage (CCS) has been verified for a last couple of decades. While the captured CO2 is injected into aquifer as a waste, CO2 Capture Utilization (CCU) has gained attention, such as conversions to value-added chemicals. For deployment of CCUS (CO2 Capture, Utilization and Storage), energy/cost reduction in CO2 capture is inevitable, which means that effective CO2 capture technologies should be established. Various capture technologies have been examined, and energy-saving membrane separation is highly expected as a next generation CO2 capture technology.
In this laboratory, membrane materials have been prepared for CO2 capture at the various emission sources. The resulting polymeric membranes exhibit world top level CO2 separation performance through validation of the gas transport mechanism. In addition, facile preparation of membrane modules has been established. We are working toward the implementation of our membrane technologies.