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Dive into the research topics where Tomonori Kano is active.

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Featured researches published by Tomonori Kano.


Japanese Journal of Applied Physics | 2012

Effect of Microscale Surface Geometry of Electrodes on Performance of Microbial Fuel Cells

Tomonori Kano; Eiichi Suito; Koichi Hishida; Norihisa Miki

In this study, we experimentally revealed that the microscale surface geometry of anodes strongly affects the performance of microbial fuel cells (MFCs). MFCs have much need to be improved in their power. The power generated by an MFC is considered to be strongly affected by the interaction between the organic bacteria and the inorganic electrode surfaces. In prior work, the nanoscale surface roughness of the anode was discussed; however, we consider that the microscale surface geometry may play a crucial role given the bacteria size of micrometer order. We used a two-chamber MFC and the direct electron transfer bacteria Shewanella putrefaciens. We prepared seven types of anode electrodes with different microscale surface geometries and experimentally found that the MFC performance depended on the contact area between the bacteria and the anode. The MFC generated the maximum power when the contact area between the anode and bacteria was the largest.


international conference on micro electro mechanical systems | 2012

A continuous-flow microbial microreactor using microbes immobilized into a microporous carrier by dielectrophoresis

Tomonori Kano; Tomomi Inaba; Y. Gu; Norihisa Miki

In this paper we demonstrate a continuous-flow microbial microreactor that immobilizes microbes into microporous carrier. First, bacteria are trapped into 3, 5, 10, 20-μm-diameter pores using positive dielectrophoresis (DEP). After non-immobilized bacteria are flushed, the continuous-flow microreactor generates reaction products when culture media including reactive substrate are supplied. Continuous-flow type reactors facilitate collecting and evaluating reaction products. We used the developed microreactor to characterize microbes belonging to Corynebacterium group by measuring generated lactic acid when glucose was supplied. The amount of lactic acid produced by a single bacterium was deduced and we found Corynebacterium variabile to be most productive among three tested members. The microbial reactor proposed herein is readily applicable to an efficient microbial screening platform.


international conference on micro electro mechanical systems | 2013

A self-swimming microbial-robot using microfabricated biopolymer

Kazuhiko Higashi; Tomonori Kano; Norihisa Miki

This paper demonstrates a microbial-robot that migrates in low Reynolds number fluidic environments powered by motile flagellated bacteria. To immobilize the flagellated bacteria strongly, we utilized bacterial cellulose (BC), which was produced by Gluconacetobacter xylinus. We evaluated the adhesion between the BC and the flagellated bacteria, Aliivibrio fischeri using a microfluidic shear device and confirmed that the superiority of BC over conventional MEMS materials. Conical-shaped BC was produced by Gluconacetobacter xylinus in conical microholes with a help of oxygen concentration gradient. A. fischeri were successfully immobilized onto the BC structure to form a microbial-robot, which could swim in culture media at an average speed of 4.8 μm/s.


international conference on micro electro mechanical systems | 2013

Nanoimprinted holes to immobilize microbes

Tomonori Kano; Tomomi Inaba; Norihisa Miki

In this paper we demonstrate highly dense immobilization of bacteria into nanoimprinted holes. Nanoimprinting enables micro holes smaller than 2 μm in diameter with a high accuracy, which cannot be patterned using conventional UV photolithography. In our prior work, we developed a microbial reactor immobilizing bacteria into micro holes, which facilitated collection and evaluation of reaction products while the number of bacteria involved in the reaction could be quantified. However, the holes were made by photolithography and the minimum size was limited to be 3 μm in diameter. Large holes allow multiple bacteria to be immobilized in a hole, which resulted in errors in quantification. The number of bacteria immobilized in a nanoimprinted hole was found to have smaller deviation than in photolithographically formed holes. In addition, density of the immobilized bacteria was experimentally found to be largest in case of 2-μm-holes. The proposed processes will be of great help for precise evaluation of bacteria reaction.


Japanese Journal of Applied Physics | 2013

Microfabrication of Super Absorbent Polymer Structure Using Nanoimprinting and Swelling Process

Tomomi Inaba; Tomonori Kano; Norihisa Miki

Micro-fabrication technologies have been extensively studied to achieve smaller sizes and higher aspect ratios. When the features have sizes of a couple of micrometers or below, nano-imprinting can be an effective method for micro-fabrication at low cost. However, it is difficult to achieve aspect ratio greater than 1. In this research, we propose micro fabrication of super absorbent polymer (SAP) as a new material for micro devices. SAP swells by adding deionized water, which can be used as a post patterning process to enhance the aspect ratio of micro structures. Micropatterning of SAP must be conducted under thoroughly dry conditions and we used nano-imprinting processes. We successfully augmented an aspect ratio of the nano-imprinted micro holes of SAP from 0.65 to 1.2 by the swelling process. The proposed patterning and swelling process of SAP can be applicable to micro-fabricate high-aspect-ratio structures at low cost for high performance lab-on-a-chip.


intelligent robots and systems | 2012

Bacteria manipulation using dielectrophoresis for efficient screening

Tomonori Kano; Tomomi Inaba; Norihisa Miki

In this paper we demonstrate a microfluidic device that immobilizes microbes into microporous carrier using positive dielectrophoresis (DEP). This device can characterize bacteria, while precisely controlling the reaction conditions and the number of bacteria involved in the biochemical reaction, and can effectively screen them to efficiently produce useful chemicals by fermentation, such as organic acids, antibiotic drugs, and foods. We chose microbes belonging to Corynebacterium group as samples. First, as preparing for using the microfluidic device, we experimentally deduced effective DEP frequency of 10 MHz, when live C. glutamicum was preferably driven to the areas with stronger electric fields. Second, we characterized the microfluidic device and found that the device could immobilize microbes into micro pores and evaluate the production capacity of a single bacrerium. As the demonstration, we used the developed device to characterize microbes under various environments and evaluate biological activity.


Journal of Micro-nano Mechatronics | 2012

A microfluidic device for bacteria immobilization in a microporous carrier by dielectrophoresis

Tomonori Kano; Tomomi Inaba; Gu Ye; Norihisa Miki


Micro & Nano Letters | 2012

Flow-type microbial chip for screening of a single bacterium

Tomonori Kano; Tomomi Inaba; Kazuhiko Higashi; Norihisa Miki


15th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences 2011, MicroTAS 2011 | 2011

Bacteria immobilization in a micro porous carrier by dielectrophoresis

Tomonori Kano; Ye Gu; Tomomi Inaba; Norihisa Miki


The Proceedings of the Symposium on Micro-Nano Science and Technology | 2012

P-G1-12 Aspect ratio enhancement of microstructures by exploiting swelling of super absorbent polymer as a post process

Tomomi Inaba; Tomonori Kano; Norihisa Miki

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