Interdisciplinary Basic Research Section was funded in April 1994, as a new research section for basic studies. One of the aims of this new section is to provide fundamental knowledges to the science world. We have organised a research team including a few researchers from outside of ONRI. The first ongoing research topic is a study of "gold catalysts", which is one of original works discovered in ONRI. Supported gold catalysts exhibit some unique catalytic properties only in the case where gold particles are highly dispersed on metal oxides. We are planning to clarify the nature of the catalysis of gold in the atomic level by using high-performance apparatus, such as HRTEM, XPS, etc. We are going to generalize the idea obtained from gold catalysts to catalysts containing other precious metals, for example, Pt. We expect that the achievements made in this research programme will become a bridge between scientific research and applied research to develop high performance catalysts for industrial uses.
A new research building, named "Basic Research Centre" was constructed for this programme. A conference hall with updated AV equipments and a few meeting rooms for daily discussion will provide an infrastructure for the liaison of scientists and for the exchange of information.
We regard this research section as a stepping stone toward strengthening basic research in ONRI.