Murata and the University of Manchester are to work on mesocrystal materials. The result could be improved capacitors.
"These materials are made of crystals that are separate, but all lined up," Manchester chemist Professor Paul O'Brien told Electronics Weekly. "Crystals in ceramic capacitors are similar, but random."
O'Brien has developed ways to make mesocrystals by precipitating nanocrystals with other materials that naturally produce internal order.
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As they jointly solidify, the second material imposes order on the crystals to form mesocrystals.
The result is a powder that can be pressed into shapes, but a powder whose grains are mesocrystals rather than amorphous clumps.
"They can be processed to make solids with higher degrees of order," said O'Brien. "The potential is for better performance from capacitors, solar cells, and sensors."
UK Governmental organisations helped broker the collaboration.
The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and the region's overseas team based in Japan, together with UKTI have worked with Murata since 2007 when it first indicated an interest in joint nanotechnology research with a UK university.
Pictured above, from left to right: Salma Aziz, the North West Development Agency's inward investment manager; Colin Sinclair, chief executive the University of Manchester's inward investment agency, Paul O'Brien, Professor of inorganic materials at Manchester and Murata scientist Masashi Inoguchi.