The essence of the research at Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, is symbolically presented using a single verb.

Dip

Soaking in a hot spring makes your skin smoother, but the opposite is true for zinc: After the metal is immersed in hot water, its surface is covered by oxide films shaped like short needles, each measuring several tens of nanometers across.

Inspired by a fascinating photo depicting zinc’s surface, Professor Yusuke Kajihara developed a simple method to directly join plastic and galvanized steel. Melted plastics are infiltrated into small structures on galvanized steel that has been immersed in 75℃ water for several dozen minutes. The much larger surface area enables the different materials to firmly attach to each other. This procedure can solve various problems associated with existing methods that use chemicals or a laser to create a tiny structure on a metal surface.

Merging what appeared to be unrelated areas – inorganic chemistry and metallurgical technology – was key to developing the new method. This “immerse and then join” technique could soon play an important role in our daily life.

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Professor Yusuke Kajihara