Nakamura Laboratory

The mechanism of OEC by Mn cluster is the biggest ever solved problem in natural photosynthesis. The purpose of our research is to develop the idea for a new catalyst system in artificial photosynthesis through clarification of the reaction mechanism. The focus is on the design of nano-size electrode which reflects the natural mechanism of OEC in PSII. Quantum chemistry, molecular simulation, signals processing with fluctuation analysis are the main tools of our theoretical approach, together with tight collaborations with researches in semiconductor physics, electrochemistry and molecular biology.

Research Subjects

• Theoretical study on the mechanism of OEC
• Photo electrochemistry and semiconductor physics
• Quantum chemsitry of photoresponsive materials
• Signals Processing
• Sonification and molecular music

Publications

1. Naoki Nishikawa, Hiroyuki Kiyohara, Shingo Sakiyama, Seiji Yamazoe, Hiroyuki Mayama, Tsuyoshi Tsujioka, Yuko Kojima, Satoshi Yokojima, Shinichiro Nakamura, and Kingo Uchida:
   "Photoinduced Formation of Superhydrophobic Surface on Which Contact Angle of a Water Droplet Exceeds 170° by Reversible Topographical Changes on a Diarylethene Microcrystalline Surface"
   Langmuir, 2012, 28, 17817-17924
2. Tatsumi, Yuto; Kitai, Jun-ichiro; Uchida, Waka; Ogata, Koji; Nakamura, Shinichiro; Uchida, Kingo:
   "Photochromism of 1,2-Bis(2-Thienyl)perfluorocyclopentene Derivatives: Substituent Effect on the Reactive Carbon Atoms"
   J. Phys. Chem. A, 2012, 116(45), 10973-10979
3. Ogata, K., Shen, J., Sugawa, S., Nakamura, S.:
   "MD Simulation Study of Ras/Raf Dissociation and the Resonating Structure of Deactivated Ras"
   Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn., 2012,85(12),1318-1328
4. J.Kitai, T.Kobayashi, W.Uchida, M.Hatakeyama, S.Yokojima, S.Nakamura and K.Uchida:
   "Photochromism of a Diarylethene Having an Azulene Ring"
   J. Org. Chem. 2012, 77, 3270-3276
5. M.Hatakeyama, H.Nakata, M.Wakabayashi, S.Yokojima, and S.Nakamura:
   "New Reaction Model for O-O Bond Formation and O₂Evolution Catalyzed by Dinuclear Manganese Complex"
   J. Phys. Chem. A, 2012, 116, 7089-7097
6. M.Hatakeyama, S.Yokojima, K.Shinoda, T.Koike, M.Akita, S.Nakamura:
   "Theoretical study on the photocyclization mechanism of diarylethenes with transition metal substituents"
   Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn., 2012, 85, 6, 679-686
7. S.Sakiyama, S.Yamazoe, A.Uyama, M.Morimoto, S.Yokojima, Y.Kojima, S.Nakamura, and K.Uchida:
   "Photoinduced Reversible Heteroepitaxial Microcrystal Growth of a Photochromic Diarylethene on (110) Surface of SrTiO3 "
   Cryst. Growth Des., 2012, 12(3), 1464-1468
8. K.Fujii, S.Nakamura, S.Yokojima, T.Goto, T.Yao, M.Sugiyama, and Y.Nakano:
   "Photoelectrochemical properties of InxGa1-xN/GaN Multiquantum Well Structures in Depletion Layers"
   J. Phys. Chem. C, 2011, 115, 25165-25169
9. S.Matsumura, K.Shinoda, M.Yamada, S.Yokojima, M.Inoue, T.Ohnishi, T.Shimada, K.Kikuchi, D.Masui, S.Hashimoto, M.Sato, A.Ito, M.Akioka, S.Takagi, Y.Nakamura, K.Nemoto, Y.Hasegawa, H.Takamoto, H.Inoue, S.Nakamura, Y.Nabeshima, D.B.Teplow, M.Kinjo, and M.Hos:
   "Two distinct amyloid β-protein(Aβ) assembly pathways leading to oligomers and fibrils identified by combined fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, morphology, and toxicity analyses"
   J. Biol. Chem., 2011, 286, 13, 11555-11562
10. S.Nakamura, S.Yokojima, K.Uchida, T.Tsujioka:
    "Photochromism of diarylethene: Effect of polymer environment and effects on surfaces"
    J. Photochem. Photobiol., C, 2011, 12, 138-150