Tokyo Tech Bulletin No.65 is launched

Photocatalyst made using a combination of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) and copper oxide (CuxO) nanoclusters inactivates various variant types of novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Scientists in Tokyo Institute of Technology, Nara Medical University and Kanagawa Institute of Industrial Science and Technology have developed this antiviral photocatalyst, in a recent breakthrough, which has been proven to be effective under both darkness and indoor light.

A technology to generate a variety of scents by blending multiple odor components using mass spectra and multidimensional data analysis has been developed by Tokyo Tech researchers. They showed that the scents could be reproduced using a multicomponent olfactory display. Twenty odor components were extracted using the mass spectra of 185 essential oils. The sensory test for seven typical essential oils revealed that their scents could be successfully replicated.

Tin selenide (SnSe) is a potential thermoelectric material, but needs complicated synthesis processes to realize a high conversion efficiency in its polycrystal form, which is required for practical applications. Tokyo Tech scientists demonstrate that the simple method of tellurium ion substitution can improve electronic and thermal properties simultaneously, resulting in a 30-fold performance enhancement. This result points to a new way for their practical applications in high-efficiency thermoelectric energy conversion.

Protein-RNA complexes are ubiquitous in modern life and are essential to many stages of the cell cycle and metabolism. New research presents experimental support to provide a new perspective on how early protein-RNA interactions evolved.

Carbonaceous meteorites are widely thought to have been an essential source of organic compounds for the early Earth; some scientists even believe these organics were crucial for the origins of life on Earth. Recent advances in atomic force microscopy (AFM) have allowed scientists to visualise individual molecules so that they can see the individual atoms and bonds in them. For the first time, individual organic molecules from carbonaceous meteorites have been visualised using AFM, opening a new window into understanding the structure of the Solar System's earliest organic compounds at atomic resolution.

Imagine a stable power supply along with a high energy density! This is exactly what has been developed by scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) in the form of a carbon-based energy storage system. This could be a potential alternative to large-scale hydrogen-based energy storage systems that suffer from low energy density, allowing us to efficiently harness the renewable energy sources to meet the demand for clean energy.