Focusing on the research work undertaken in the Kamitani Group

Chemical reactions are central to industrial processes and manufacturing. The ability to combine atoms into molecules and also break these molecules into various smaller components provides us with the building blocks for countless products and processes. However, not all reactions are efficient and they require energy to be completed. In many cases the amount of energy required to begin the reaction, the activation energy is too high and the rate of the reaction, how quickly it runs, is too slow. Thankfully, there is a solution. Catalysts are substances that can be added to reactions that can increase the rate of a reaction and/or lower the activation energy. They are also re-usable because they are not consumed during the reaction, meaning only a small amount of catalyst is needed to greatly improve a reaction. Chemical engineers have learned how to produce or improve catalysts and hence reactions that are required for industry. Unfortunately, the majority of catalysts come in the form of rare precious metals making them expensive and sometimes difficult to obtain for logistic and even political reasons. To get around this reliance on rare elements Masahiro Kamitani, Assistant Professor at Kitasato University in Japan founded a research group dedicated to the development and application of iron catalysts.