Why Pureosity exists

Prof. Easan Sivaniah was invited to speak with Tsuyoshi Sugino, President of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, JSPS executive members, and current JSPS fellows in Japan. His presentation, "WHAT'S YOUR SUPER-POWER? Former Fellow Prof. Easan SIVANIAH's Journey and Hopes for Young Fellows," looked back on his experience as a former JSPS fellow and offered personal reflections for young researchers navigating the possibilities, pressures, and responsibilities of scientific life. The views expressed are Prof. Sivaniah's own and do not represent those of iCeMS. The video is now being reviewed within the JSPS fellows network.

Why it matters: the event connects Pureosity's research story with the next generation of JSPS fellows, showing how scientific curiosity, personal conviction, and institutional support can shape a researcher's path.

Easan Sivaniah's project, Creation of functional structures through strategic destruction, was selected as a 2023 KAKENHI Scientific Research (S) project. The program backs ambitious, investigator-led research and places this work alongside a small national cohort of major Japanese science projects.

Why it matters: this frames Pureosity's material work as a long-range research platform, not a single invention.

The Pureosity team extended Organized Microfibrillation into self-enclosed microfluidic devices. Instead of assembling channels from multiple layers, the process uses light, common polymers, and internal porous structures to guide fluid flow while structural colour reveals information about pore size and movement.

Why it matters: it connects colour, sensing, and lab-on-a-chip fabrication in one material process.

Graphene oxide membranes can separate hydrogen efficiently, but humidity usually damages their performance. The team showed that positively charged nanodiamonds can stabilize graphene oxide nanolaminates, helping the membrane retain high hydrogen selectivity under aggressive humidity cycling.

Why it matters: practical hydrogen separation often happens in wet gas streams, so humidity resistance is a real-world threshold.

OOYOO, a company initiated from Pureosity's membrane research, was listed among the companies and local governments presenting Japan's latest technologies at the NET ZERO Leaders Summit. The showcase focused on carbon neutrality, green investment, and collaboration.

Why it matters: it shows the research moving beyond the lab into industrial and climate-facing networks.

The team developed a way to control microscopic cavities and microfibrils inside glassy polymer films using standing-wave optics and solvent development. The layered porous structures create tunable structural colour, enabling inkless high-resolution images on flexible and transparent formats. The result was introduced through a Kyoto University press conference and was subsequently covered by major Japanese newspapers.

Why it matters: this is the core OM breakthrough behind Pureosity's current surface, image, and white-material explorations.

High-permeability polymers are attractive for carbon capture but often lack selectivity. This work dispersed amine-functionalized nanosized MOF additives into polymer membranes, increasing CO2 selectivity while limiting the usual loss of permeability.

Why it matters: it directly supports Pureosity's clean-air mission by addressing the cost-performance trade-off in membrane carbon capture.

Pureosity's inkless structural-colour work was featured in the Government of Japan's Highlighting Japan and in JST's FY2020 research achievements. Both institutions presented OM as a way to control cracks and light for ultra-high-definition colour images and future applications.

Why it matters: the work moved beyond a journal result and was independently communicated as a public-facing innovation.

Easan Sivaniah's energy-saving membrane project was selected by MEXT's START Program for new business ventures. Working with UTEC, the project aimed to scale COS membrane manufacturing and improve mechanical strength, chemical resistance, fouling resistance, and durability.

Why it matters: this is an early commercialization bridge for Pureosity's membrane science.

The team used controlled thermal oxidative crosslinking to tune polymers of intrinsic microporosity. The resulting networks were stable, flexible, and highly selective while retaining permeability far beyond many commercial polymer membranes.

Why it matters: it sharpened the scientific basis for high-throughput molecular sieving in polymer membranes.

This paper proposed collective osmotic shock as a way to coordinate fracture across ordered materials, producing regular bicontinuous structures. Demonstrated in self-assembled block copolymer micelles, the concept pointed toward applications in photonics, nanofiltration, and optoelectronics.

Why it matters: it is one of the root ideas behind later COS membrane development and Pureosity's material-transformation logic.