Masatake Haruta (1947–2022)

figure a

Masatake Haruta, Emeritus Professor of Tokyo Metropolitan University, passed away on January 25, 2022, at the age of 74. Masatake was born in Gifu, Japan, on September 27, 1947, and studied chemistry at Nagoya Institute of Technology. He graduated from the Department of Industrial Chemistry, Nagoya Institute of Technology, in 1970, and completed the doctoral course of Kyoto University in 1975, and received the doctoral degree in engineering from Kyoto University in 1976 for research on electrolytic reaction in liquid hydrogen fluoride.

He has been engaged in research on the use of hydrogen as a next-generation fuel alternative to petroleum at the Osaka National Research Institute (currently, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology (AIST)) since 1976. He was a visiting scientist at Professor Bernard Delmon’s laboratory of Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, from 1981 to 1982. After going back to Japan, he started to prepare mixed oxide of gold by coprecipitation. He discovered that some “mixed oxide of gold” samples exhibited high catalytic activity for CO oxidation even at −70 °C, but the catalytically active state of gold had been unknown. In 1984, he and Professor Sumio Iijima of Meijo University discovered that nano-sized gold particles were deposited on several metal oxides by transmission electron microscopy. He carefully confirmed the catalytically active species were gold nanoparticles and published a milestone paper on gold catalysts in 1987. One of his other milestone achievements is the direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) from O2 and H2 over gold nanoparticles supported on TiO2, which was reported by him and Toshio Hayashi in 1998. Moreover, direct synthesis of H2O2 by O2 and water without the aid of H2 was achieved by him and Prof. Jiahui Huang, reported in 2009.

He became a Guest Professor at Technical University of Vienna in 1994. From 1994 to 2001, he also became an Adjunct Professor at Faculty of Science, Graduate School of Osaka University. Since 2001, he has served as Director of Research Institute for Green Technology, AIST, where he has been involved in not only his own research but also in the management of the division. He has been a professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University from 2005 to 2018 and became Emeritus Professor in 2012. He has been a Director of Gold Chemistry Research Center, Tokyo Metropolitan University, from 2012 to 2018. At the same time, he became a Visiting Professor for Senior International Scientists of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Director of Gold Catalysis Research Center of Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) until 2017. He has also been a Visiting Professor at Nagoya Institute of Technology from 2013 to 2017. In 2013, he founded Haruta Gold Inc. to expand the scope of gold catalyst research by selling standard samples of gold catalysts. During these years, he has made many brilliant achievements in the research of catalytic functions related to gold nanoparticles, such as the development of new preparation methods for highly active gold nanoparticle-supported catalysts and the development of Au-catalyzed reactions for sustainable chemistry. Even after his retirement, he has been involved in research as a research advisor and visiting professor of the Research Center for Gold Chemistry. During them, he has been involved in many international professional activities, such as the President of the Catalysis Society of Japan in 2011, which we will not go into in this article.

He received the 44th Chemical Technology Award from the Kinki Chemical Society (1992), 15th Osaka Science Prize (1997), 24th Minister Award for Distinguished Research Achievement, Science and Technology Agency of Japan (1998), Catalysis Society of Japan Award (2002), Henry J. Albert Award from International Precious Metals Institute (2002), Chemical Society of Japan Award (2010), Spiers Memorial Award from Royal Society of Chemistry (2011), and Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate in Chemistry (2012).

Masatake was always enthusiastic about catalysis by gold. He was also very patient and managed his research group by giving a lot of advice even when the results were not so good. Since he moved to Tokyo Metropolitan University, he has been teaching many students and has produced many excellent researchers. He used to say, “Gold never betrays you,” which is very impressive. We are sure that he felt that he had not done enough yet, but we believe that he fulfilled his life as a researcher of gold catalysts. We heard that he had gone on a trip with his family a little before his death, and we are sure that he spent a happy and meaningful time with his family.

We would like to express our sincere condolences to his family and friends.