Development of Next-generation Clean Energies and Reaction Processes for Green Sustainable Chemistry Using Solar Energy and Photocatalysts
It is not an exaggeration to state that human society is supported by the mass consumption of fossil resources such as coal, oil, and natural gas. Because it is said that the fossil resources will dry up in the near future, research on sustainable energy needs to be developed urgently. In addition, the mass consumption of fossil resources leads to the emission of carbon dioxide as a greenhouse effect gas and environmental pollutants as a causative agent for photochemical smog and acid rain. As you can imagine, many social and diplomatic problems as well as environmental problems arise because fossil resources are unevenly distributed. To end the dependence on fossil resources, we have to develop new clean energies and reaction processes for green sustainable chemistry as well as spend a lot of money on energy saving and environmental measures.
I focus on sunlight because it is an inexhaustible natural energy source. I hope to develop new clean energies and reaction processes for green sustainable chemistry using solar energy. Energy conversion materials such as solar batteries and photocatalysts are generally used to convert solar energy into electric and chemical energies effectively and inexpensively, because it is very difficult to directly use solar energy. The development of new materials that improve the efficiency of energy conversion is one of the most important themes. In addition, I will help in making complex chemical reactions possible by using photocatalysts. Concretely speaking, I will realize the photoreduction of carbon dioxide for a carbon cycling society and new organic synthesis for green sustainable chemistry such as the selective oxidation process in the presence of molecular oxygen. It is known that many molecules adsorbed on a solid surface have various conformations. I clarify the surface properties of the photocatalyst as an inorganic solid material and synthesize new photocatalyst materials for green sustainable chemistry by feeding back the obtained result. My lifework is the elucidation of the photoactivation mechanism of the adsorbed species on the solid surface, and I am going to conduct research on this theme in the future keeping in mind the following three keywords“sunlight,” “photocatalyst,” and “chemical conversion.”
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