Ube Industries' basic material development aims to elucidate and control the micro world at the nano level that determines the properties of every substance.
 As an example, "carbonized polyimide film" is a material with special functions created by converting our proprietary polyimide material into graphite at a high temperature to control its crystalline structure and interlayer distance.
 Regarding the development of the components for distributed energy systems, a major challenge for the future, we are approaching development from a number of perspectives. "Porous carbon membranes", one of these approaches, is a material produced by carbonizing polyimide porous membranes whose pore size and permeability are tailored by viscoelastic separation. Using it as an electrode material significantly reduces electrical resistance compared to existing products, thus attracting considerable interest from many fields.
 Ube Industries has successfully developed the world's first high-strength photocatalytic fibers with a gradient surface structure (featured in the journal "Nature"). With the photocatalytic fiber module, "Aqua Solution^®", we are making steady progress in the water purification field, which was previously considered to be difficult. The modules have been installed at several hot spa facilities in Japan and we are endeavoring to expand its application into pool water and waste water processing.
 Other examples are oxide ceramics "Melt Growth Composite Material" (MGC) and silicon carbide fiber-bonded "Tyrannohex^TM", both of which have the world's highest heat-resistance, and are well known after being featured in the journals "Nature" and "Science". In particular, "Tyrannohex^TM", whose feasibility as a rocket injection nozzle material is in the final stage of evaluation, is expected to be used in power generating turbines and as a corrosion-resistant material for handling molten metals.