Emergent Bioinspired Soft Matter Research Team

Our team aims to create water-based materials, referred to as aqua materials, as replacements for conventional plastics. Taking advantage of their unique properties as moldable, portable water, together with the elaboration of their inner or surface parts, we will demonstrate their various applications as intelligent soft materials. We are employing a wide range of chemicals as the components of aqua materials, in order to improve their properties and to ultimately realize environment-conscious materials. Our challenge also includes the rational design of novel bio-inspired materials, by assembling molecules with dynamic and static functions within aqua materials used as scaffolds.

Research Fields

Chemistry / Materials Sciences

Research Subjects

• Aqua materials: environmentally friendly alternatives to plastic based on water
• Bioinspired soft materials with anisotropic structures by external field-induced orientation
• Chiral molecular flasks by the template reactions in liquid crystals

Publications

1. Ishida, Y., Sakata, H., Achalkumar, A. S., Yamada, K., Matsuoka, Y.,Iwahashi, N, Amano, S., and Saigo, K.;
   "Guest-Responsive Covalent Frameworks by the Cross-Linking of Liquid-Crystalline Salts: Tuning of Lattice Flexibility by the Design of Polymerizable Units"
   Chemistry – A European Journal 17, 14752–147626 (2011).
2. Ishida, Y.;
   "Organic Zeolite Analogues Based on Multi-Component Liquid Crystals: Recognition and Transformation of Molecules within Constrained Environments"
   Materials 4, 183-205 (2011).
3. Ishida, Y., Achalkumar, A. S., Kato, S., Kai, Y., Hayashi, Y., Misawa, A., Yamada, K., Matsuoka, Y., Shiro, M., and Saigo, K.:
   " Tunable Chiral Reaction Media Based on Two-Component Liquid Crystals: Regio-, Diastereo-, and Enantio-Controlled Photodimerization of Anthracenecarboxylic Acids "
   Journal of the American Chemical Society, 132, 17475–17446 (2010).
4. Wang, Q., Mynar, J. L., Yoshida, M., Lee, E., Lee, M., Okuro, K., Kinbara, K., and Aida T.:
   " High-Water-Content Hydrogel by Mixing Clay and Dendritic Molecular Glue "
   Nature 463, 339–343 (2010).
5. Ishida, Y., Kai, Y., Kato, S., Misawa, A., Amano, S., Matsuoka, Y., and Saigo, K.:
   " Two-Component Liquid Crystals as Chiral Reaction Media: Highly Enantioselective Photo-Dimerization of an Anthracene Derivative Driven by the Ordered Microenvironment "
   Angewandte Chemie International Edition 47, 8241–8245 (2008).
6. * Amano, S., Ishida, Y., and Saigo, K.:
   " Solid-State Hosts by the Template Polymerization of Columnar Liquid Crystals: Locked Supramolecular Architectures around Chiral 2-Amino Alcohols "
   Chemistry – A European Journal 13, 5186–5196 (2007).
7. * Ishida, Y., Amano, S., Iwahashi, N., and Saigo, K.:
   " Switching of Structural Order in a Cross-Linked Polymer Triggered by the Desorption/Adsorption of Guest Molecules "
   Journal of the American Chemical Society, 128, 13068–13069 (2006).
8. * Ishii, D., Kinbara, K., Ishida, Y., Ishii, N., Okochi, M., Yohda, M., and Aida, T.:
   " Chaperonin-Mediated Stabilization and ATP-Triggered Release of Semiconductor Nanoparticles "
   Nature, 423, 628–632 (2003).
9. * Ishida, Y. and Aida, T.:
   " Homochiral Supramolecular Polymerization of an "S"-Shaped Monomer: Translation of Optical Purity into Molecular Weight Distribution "
   Journal of the American Chemical Society, 124, 14017–14019 (2002).
10. * Ishida, Y., Miyauchi, H., and Saigo, K.:
    " Design and Synthesis of a Novel Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquid with Planar Chirality "
    Chemical Communications, 2240–2241 (2002).