The idea of Dr. OHNO

In Japan, where resources are scarce, we are developing various reaction systems that can utilize the only abundant solar energy. Our main research topic is the development of ultimate photocatalysts, and our ultimate goal is to develop a super active selective photocatalytic reaction system using sunlight as a light source. This research can fundamentally solve the problem that causes global warming, that is, the large amount of carbon dioxide emissions caused by various product production systems. We believe that this will lead to a breakthrough system development to realize the use of sunlight to produce the next generation of energy-hydrogen from water.

Dr.OHNO's research technology

Professor OHNO

Kyushu Institute of Technology


Professor OHNO

TERUHISA OHNO

Development and supervision

 At present, Dr.OHNO has obtained 44 patents, published 47 books, 192 academic papers, and the articles have been cited 10342 times. Follow-up reports from NHK, Asahi Shimbun, West Japan Shimbun, etc. are following up. He is the first person to develop indoor visible light photocatalysts, and he is also the world's leading high-performance photocatalyst (even in indoor light can also play a role) researcher.

·Scientific and effective public health
·Promote space hygiene

Novelty and originality of research

There are two types of photocatalysts: those that receive indoor light (visible light) and proceed with reduction reactions, and those that proceed with oxidative decomposition of harmful substances and viruses. In general photocatalysts, holes (holes) and electrons exist in the same place, so activity is lost by recombination.

(1) By separating the oxidation reaction and the reduction reaction field, the performance of the photocatalyst is significantly improved. In terms of its reaction mechanism, under light irradiation, the two completely opposite reactions, oxidation reaction and reduction reaction, of the photocatalyst can proceed simultaneously on nano-scale spherical particles. Therefore, the reverse reaction is easy to proceed, resulting in a substantial decrease in the performance of the catalyst. OHNO Lab successfully solved the most important problem that must be solved, and found a way to separate the surface reaction field of photocatalytic particles at the nanometer level.

(2) Through the development of visible light-responsive titanium oxide materials, high-performance reactions can be achieved even under weak indoor light. This is a titanium oxide photocatalyst with a wide range of applications, but in order to exert its performance, it is necessary that sunlight contains only a few percent of ultraviolet rays. OHNO Lab used nanotechnology to combine metal ions with photocatalysts and successfully developed visible light-responsive photocatalysts. The photocatalyst has high bactericidal and deodorizing properties to visible light. Now after repeated improvements, it has reached the world's highest level of performance.

By combining these technologies, we have successfully developed the rod-shaped (rod-shaped) next-generation titanium oxide photocatalyst in the world. In addition, we have also studied the decomposition performance of chemicals that use indoor light (acetaldehyde: one of the pathogenic substances of ward syndrome). The research results show that the decomposition performance of the catalyst is about 4 times that of the commonly used nitrogen-added titanium oxide.