Academic Staff

Polyoxometalates are of particular interest in the fields of catalysis, surface science, and materials science because their chemical properties including redox potentials, acidities, and solubility in various media, can be finely tuned by choosing the appropriate constituent elements and countercations. In particular, the coordination of metal ions and organometallic fragments into the vacant sites of lacunary polyoxometalates is one of the most powerful techniques for constructing and stabilizing efficient and well-defined metal centers. We recently synthesized and characterized some novel compounds in which aluminum, magnesium, platinum, rhenium, and zirconium ions were coordinated into the vacant sites of polyoxometalates. And, we applied these compounds to visible-light-driven photocatalysts and oxidation catalysts. We will strive for the development of environment-friendly, polyoxometalate-based catalysts by using molecular-level design technology.