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Professor of Surface Chemistry

KANAIZUKA Katsuhiko

Going from hypothesis to demonstration – toward perpetually usable sources of energy

I am doing research on environmentally friendly, perpetually usable sources of energy. For example, if you burn alcohol, you get water and carbon dioxide. My research is the kind in which you seek an opposite reaction – that is, use solar energy to convert carbon dioxide into alcohol. To explain in a bit more detail, my research is about doing things like create a completely new substance by combining elements, or create a different function by stacking compounds that possess differing properties on electrodes.

The words of a former teacher that left a big impression on me was, “Science is about forming and proving a hypothesis.” Sometimes, my research progresses as I imagined, and at other times, I get unexpected results. I take the results, form a hypothesis on what I expect will happen next, and repeat the experiments many times. It is when I am able to demonstrate a hypothesis and achieve proper results that I feel glad that I am engaged in science