Molecular Design and Functional Expression: Organic Material Chemistry and Process Engineering

We have been studying new technologies for organic synthesis and their application to highly functionalized organic materials. For example, synthesis and use of optically active molecules and organometallic compounds, and the development of liquid crystalline materials, liquid crystalline charge transporting materials, and functional dyes responding to external stimuli such as chemical materials and electromagnetic waves are now in progress. Also, our attention is focused on process simulations of material production supporting for the design of droplet formation systems, plastics molding, nuclear reprocessing plants, and so on.

Development of Novel Methodology for Analytical Chemistry and Physical Chemistry

Our research is aimed at developing new methods to find unknown chemical species and highly functional molecules by separation approach, and to obtain information about the structures and physicochemical properties of chemical species by unique spectroscopic methods.

We are focusing efforts on the following research projects in the field of analytical chemistry: developing unique separation methods to find novel DNA aptamers and humic substances, developing new concepts for chemical separation using crystalline coordination polymers, and designing supramolecular luminescent chemosensors.

Our research also focuses on spectroscopic physical chemistry. In particular, we are trying to develop original advanced spectroscopies for interfacial molecules and biomolecules. We have already developed Single-Channel Heterodyne-Detected Sum Frequency Generation Spectroscopy that has the best spectral resolution with interface selectivity and phase sensitivity. We are also making efforts on the development of novel fluorescence correlation spectroscopy that can be a powerful tool for elucidating the complex dynamics of biomolecules such as proteins. In addition, we are focusing on researches of morphology and molecular arrangement of organized films prepared at the air/water interface.