oxidation

With black tea, after the leaves are picked they're exposed to air, which leads to oxidation.

Prof. Yuasa explains, "We have developed crystalline nanotubes with a special double-walled structure. By incorporating electron donor molecules into the pores of these crystalline nanotubes through a solid-state oxidation reaction, we succeeded in directly observing the electron transfer reaction in the solid using X-ray crystal structure analysis."

This double-walled structure with large windows in the nano-tube walls makes the crystal robust and flexible enough to maintain its crystalline state when subjected to ET oxidation processes.

This allows electrons to be removed from the absorbed electron donors through solid-state ET oxidation reactions, resulting in the accumulation of holes in the donors inside the nanotube.

Due to the robustness of the crystals, the researchers were able to observe this ET oxidation process using X-ray crystal structure analysis directly, uncovering key insights.