Emergent Soft Matter Function Research Group

With world's focus on environment and energy issues, our group aims to establish a novel principle of material sciences addressing these problems, through the development of unprecedented functional materials with precisely controlled structure and properties, from the molecular to nano-, meso-, or macroscopic level.  The main research subjects include the development of (1) novel water photolysis catalysts entirely composed of ubiquitous elements, (2) organic ferroelectric materials for solution-processable high-density memory devices, and (3) graphitic soft materials based on the novel efficient method to exfoliate graphite into graphene sheets.  The organic functional materials we develop are thoroughly investigated from the viewpoints of optical, electrical and morphological properties.

Research Fields

Chemistry / Materials Sciences

Research Subjects

• Development of functional organic, polymeric, supramolecular nanomaterials
• Graphitic soft materials based on the novel efficient method to exfoliate graphite into graphene sheets.
• Novel water photolysis catalysts entirely composed of ubiquitous elements

Publications

1. Zhang, W., Jin, W., Fukushima, F., Ishii, N., and Aida, T.:
   " Dynamic or Nondynamic? Helical Trajectory in Hexabenzocoronene Nanotubes Biased by a Detachable Chiral Auxiliary "
   J. Am. Chem. Soc. 135, 114–117 (2013).
2. Lee, J. J., Yamaguchi, A., Alam, Md. A., Yamamoto, Y., Fukushima, T., Kato, K., Takata, M., Fujita, N., and Aida T.:
   " Discotic Ionic Liquid Crystals of Triphenylene as Dispersants for Orienting Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes "
   Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 51, 8490–8494 (2012).
3. Ando, S., Ohta, E., Kosaka, A., Hashizume, D., Koshino, H., Fukushima, T., and Aida, T.:
   " Remarkable Effects of Terminal Groups and Solvents on Helical Folding of o-Phenylene Oligomers "
   J. Am. Chem. Soc. 134, 11084–11087 (2012).
4. Osawa, T., Kajitani, T., Hashizume, D., Ohsumi, H., Sasaki, S., Takata, M., Koizumi, Y., Saeki, A., Seki, S., Fukushima, F., and Aida, T.:
   " Wide-Range 2D Lattice Correlation Unveiled for Columnarly Assembled Triphenylene Hexacarboxylic Esters "
   Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 51, 7990–8493 (2012).
5. Aida, T., Meijer, E. W., and Stupp, S. I.:
   " Functional Supramolecular Polymers "
   Science 335, 813–817 (2012).
6. Zhang, W., Jin, W., Fukushima, T., Saeki, A., Seki, S., and Aida, T.:
   " Supramolecular Linear Heterojunction Composed of Graphite‒Like Semiconducting Nanotubular Segments"
   Science 334, 340–343 (2011).
7. Ohta, E., Sato, H., Ando, S., Kosaka, A., Fukushima, T., Hashizume, D., Yamasaki, M., Hasegawa, K., Muranaka, A., Ushiyama, H., Yamashita, K., and Aida, T.:
   " Redox‒Responsive Molecular Helices with Highly Condensed π-Clouds "
   Nat. Chem. 3, 68–73 (2011).
8. Hosono, N., Kajitani, T., Fukushima, T., Ito, K., Sasaki, S., Takata, M., and Aida, T.:
   " Large‒Area Three‒Dimensional Molecular Ordering of a Polymer Brush by One‒Step Processing "
   Science 330, 808–811 (2010).
9. Wang, Q., Mynar, J. L., Yoshida, M., Lee, E., Lee, M., Okuro, K., Kinbara, K., and Aida T.:
   " High-Water-Content Mouldable Hydrogels by Mixing Clay and Dendritic Molecular Binder "
   Nature 463, 339–343 (2010).
10. Yamamoto, Y., Zhang, G., Jin, W., Fukushima, T., Ishii, N., Saeki, A., Seki, S., Tagawa, S., Minari, T., Tsukagoshi, K., and Aida, T.:
    " Ambipolar‒Transporting Coaxial Nanotubes with a Tailored Molecular Graphene‒Fullerene Heterojunction "
    Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 106, 21051–21056 (2009).