Professor

Hirotomo Nishihara

Assistant Professor

Hirotaka Nakatsuji

Assistant Professor

Takeharu Yoshii

Development of advanced functional carbon materials

It is difficult to precisely control the structure of carbon-based materials with non-crystalline frameworks. Moreover, precise structure drawing of such non-crystalline materials is also a difficult issue. We have developed the new techniques which allow the bottom-up synthesis of advanced carbon materials with controlled structures at atomic/molecular scale, specifically using organic synthesis or chemical-vapor deposition. Thus, a variety of functional carbon materials have been achieved such as metal-carbon frameworks with defined chemical structures like organic crystals, micro/mesoporous materials with singlegraphene walls, and carbon-based composite materials. Also, we focus on the elucidation of physicochemical properties of carbon materials including reactivity, durability, and catalysis from the view point of chemistry by using advanced analysis techniques. Moreover, we proceed in the application of our advanced carbon-based materials for supercapacitors, secondary batteries, fuel cells, heat pump, new energy devices, functional adsorbents, catalysis, and healthcare, with many collaborators including research organizations and companies.

Themes

• Development of nanoporous materials with single-layer graphene walls
• Study on new physicochemical phenomena induced by elastic nanoporous materials
• Study on energy storage and conversion using advanced carbon materials
• Synthesis of crystalline carbon materials based on organic chemistry and their applications
• Advanced analysis of carbon edge sites
• Application of carbon-based materials to healthcare field