"Tough ion-conductive gels" is a keyword in my research. The development of tough ion-conductive polymer gel materials and the analysis of their microstructures is our interest.

Polymer gel materials are composed of a polymer network and a solvent, as shown in Figure 1, and the majority of the material is composed of the solvent. Gels composed of ionic liquids, salts having a melting temperature lower than room temperature, are called "ion gels." They are new, safe materials that are both non-volatile and ion-conductive.

However, conventional gel materials are brittle. Recently, stretchable and bendable materials for wearable devices have been attracting attention, and the toughness of gels is required. I am developing tough iongel materials, as shown in Figure 2, by using polymer synthesis and other techniques. I am also clarifying their nano-order structure by mainly small-angle X-ray scattering and small-angle neutron scattering to clarify the mechanism of their toughness. We are also interested in the application of the materials to electrochemical devices.

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