Bioplastic Research Team

Creating new high quality plastic materials made from biomass

Team Director

Hideki Abe Ph.D.

1993: Junior Research Scientist, Polymer Chemistry Laboratory, RIKEN
1996: Ph.D., Tokyo Institute of Technology
1996: Research Scientist, Polymer Chemistry Laboratory, RIKEN
2002: Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Innovative and Engineered Materials, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology
2005: Senior Research Scientist, Polymer Chemistry Laboratory, RIKEN
2006: Senior Research Scientist, Chemical Analysis Team, Advanced Development and Supporting Center, RIKEN
2010: Team Leader, Bioplastic Research Team, RIKEN Biomass Engineering Program
2012: Visiting Professor, Department of Innovative and Engineered Materials, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology (-current)
2013: Team Director, Bioplastic Research Team, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (-current)

Main Research Fields :	Chemistry
Related Research Fields :	Engineering / Polymer chemistry / Green/Environmental chemistry
Keywords :	Bioplastics / Polymer synthesis / Biomass resources / Polymer/Textile materials
Strategic Program :	Material Circulation and Catalysts

Outline

Our team aims to provide high-performance and specific functional bioplastic materials as environmentally conscious polymeric materials. Particularly, by paying attention to biopolyesters produced by microorganisms, we have developed the advanced technology that enables us to bring out their potential and use them as practical plastic materials. We also employ various biomass substances to create novel polymeric materials, followed with biopolyesters. We achieved to construct a methodology of molecular design for bioplastics to predict their properties and functions, and new technology for efficient and precise bioplastic synthesis.