Dr. Tsuyoshi Hirata is a TUM-IAS Rudolf Diesel Industry Fellow. Dr. Hirata works for Nippon Shokubai Co., Ltd., Japan, and is a Nippon Shokubai Fellow and General Manager of a Project group in the Research Division.

Together with his host Prof. Johann Plank (Chair of Construction Chemicals), Hirata focuses on clarifying the working mechanisms of the water-reducing polymers’ molecules, which are a main ingredients of superplasticizer, against cement particles: the molecular conformation changes of such polymers in the cement paste solution; the influence of such polymer conformations on the water-reducing performance and flow retentive ability.

Our goal is to build the novel evaluation methods for polymer, based on their nano-science, to find out some of the most suitable polymer structures for superplasticizer.

Doctoral Candidate:
Alex Lange, Construction Chemicals