It is great honor to receive the achievement award 2017 from Japan Society of Ion Exchange. I have been working on the projects related to the organic synthesis in the past decades. One of the most important projects in our company is the development of novel oxidizing agent “Sodium hypochlorite pentahydrate (SHC5)” for organic synthesis. The production of SHC5 has successfully been achieved by using ion exchange technology. The novel oxidant SHC5 is now available for industrial and laboratory use. It is superior to conventional aqueous sodium hypochlorite solutions. The SHC5 contains 44% NaOCl and minimal amount of impurities. Examples of the selective organic synthesis using SHC5 were described.

Various supramolecular molecular recognition methods have been developed for constructing a more efficient ion/molecule recognition system of bio-related molecules such as sugar molecules and adenosine triphosphate (ATP). These systems are based on the coordination of phosphoric acid derivatives to dipicolylamine-transition metal complexes and the formation of esters between cis-diol groups of monosaccharides with phenylboronic acids as a motif. The recognition ability and selectivity can be enhanced by a combination of interactions, such as the inclusion complex formation with cyclodextrins and weak intermolecular interactions between receptors and reporter molecules. Forthermore by employing these molecular recognition sites on various nanoparticles, the fluorescence or the electrochemical bacteria detection systems have been developed, which are also summarized in this review.

From the viewpoint of the minimizing the corrosion of the reactor’s structural material in the nuclear power plants, the ion exchange resins are generally used as one of purification system in order to keep water quality clean. Hydrogen peroxide generated by the radiolysis of water exists in the reactor water and it accelerates the oxidation decomposition of the ion exchange resins and finally, it becomes the cause to shorten the resin life. To solve this problem, the application of Pd doped resins which can decompose hydrogen peroxide catalytically at the surface has been considered. It was confirmed by the cold test that Pd doped resins overlaid on the ion exchange resins or mixed with the ion exchange resins decomposed hydrogen peroxide contained in the reactor water and inhibited the oxidative degradation of the ion exchange resins. We report the results of these tests.

As an adsorbing material for recovering cesium from radioactive contaminated water, a sponge-like compound was synthesized using sodium-form synthetic mica (Na-TSM) as an ion exchanger which does not contain lithium and is inexpensive and readily available. The cesium adsorption ratio from aqueous solutions was 80% or higher in low cesium concentration region and the desorption ratio was less than 5%. It suggests that synthesized sponge-like material is much adapted as cesium adsorbent.