～Suitable for medical applications!~

Our laboratory uses MECC’s ESM-101 and NANON-04 to develop meshes for cancer therapy and blood-purification.
In particular, we introduced ESM-101 for the first time as an academia.
Our solutions contains costly chemicals and physiologically active substances as they are used for medical use. However, MECC’s device minimizes use of chemical solutions and enables
a wide range of voltage control, which is quite compatible with our requirements.
It is also very good when proceeding with long-term projects because the equipment is designed thinking about operators’ safety and MECC staff are willing to consult us about our minor questions at any time.

～Research on nanofibers for biomaterials～

The NANON is an essential facility that in our laboratory for nanofiber research.
Programming of the spinning conditions is intuitive and we can proceed with our work efficiently.
The device incorporates a light, making it very easy to check fine fibers visually.
In addition, when solutions with good spinnability are used, the equipment can be operated for a long time, enabling us to make other experiments during that time.
Since component units are well integrated in one system and, wiring will not be confused and various collectors can be replaced quickly, enabling a large number of experiments to be performed with a single set of the NANON.
Even large parts are easy to remove and cleaning after experiments can be done easily.

What research is being conducted using MECC products?

We are researching nanofiber applications of biomaterials and are aiming at developing bio-safe materials. Recently, we have been working especially on nanofibers of various natural polymer materials such as proteins like collagen, polysaccharides like alginate and cellulose nanofibers, as well as their applications.
Conditions for electrospinning using water as solvents are severe, but MECC products are well insulated and enables spinning in a closed space in the chamber, so spinning experiments can be advanced stably.

Same fibers can be synthesized safely and repeatedly at any time.

Our laboratories are promoting not only research with the goal of “synthesis of fibers (= synthesis of materials)” but also research aimed at “use of synthesized fibers.” For this reason, we usually synthesize relatively large quantities of fiber as a research application. Until now, fibers were made using a self-made machine, but the conditions were changed each time, and different fibers were being made. In addition, consideration for safety cannot be said to be sufficient, and it has been difficult to synthesize a large amount of fibers because we had to observe spinning all the time. As the study progressed to the basic applications, we encountered NANON made by MECC when this annoying problem became tangible. With a compact body and simple operation, a wide variety of fibers can be synthesized by utilizing a wide variety of accessories. In addition, it can spin fibers while keeping the spinning conditions constant for a long time, and it is also equipped with a thorough safety device, so it is also possible to synthesize a large amount of fibers at once. In addition, MECC has a comprehensive support system that allows us to cooperate in the calculation of conditions for spinning new materials, which will be very useful and reliable for future research.

Research and development of fiber materials that contribute to improving the diffusivity of materials such as fuel cell materials and adsorbents

We are developing materials such as fuel cells and adsorbents. Many of the material developments are underway with the aim of achieving improved reaction speed and providing new functions. Excellent characteristic materials have been proposed very much, but there are also materials that cannot demonstrate their performance as they are when applied to devices. One of the factors for this is the deterioration in the transportability of materials when they are laminated to be applied to devices. We are proceeding with the development of materials from the viewpoint of “What is a material that contributes to improving the transportability of materials when applied to devices?” This is a field where many particulate materials are used, so the NANON is essential for our research in stably synthesizing fibers that can achieve properties in different layers that differ greatly from ones before.