奈良先端科学技術大学院大学 物質創成科学領域

Staff & Contact

Education and Research Activities in the Laboratory

We focus on the development of functional organic materials including organic semiconductors, highly fluorescent dyes, near-infrared (NIR) dyes, and carbon nanomaterials. In particular, we are fascinated by beautiful and huge organic structures with high symmetry. We are also interested in the control of self-assembled structures to achieve their synergistic performances. Students at our laboratory are encouraged to work independently and freely on their own original research themes.

Research Themes

1. Creation of unique carbon frameworks with beautiful shapes and novel functionality

We are developing new synthetic methods for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons such as nanocarbons and oligorylenes, which have a unique shape and are chemically stable with an extended π-conjugated system (Fig. 1, 2) [1-3]. We are also synthesizing highly efficient light-emitting materials by taking advantage of the characteristics of main group elements.

2. Molecular design of novel nanocarbon materials with absorption and emission in the near-infrared region

We are interested in designing molecules with long wavelength absorption and luminescence (Fig. 3) [4]. As an unusual example, we have successfully created a luminescent molecule in the near-infrared region by using fullerene C₇₀, traditionally used as electron-accepting materials. We observed circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) of a chiral C₇₀ derivative for the first time (Fig. 4) [5].

3. Construction of carbon nanocages with robust structure

We aim to synthesize quantum dot clusters with atomic precision by performing chemical reactions in nanocages constructed by bottom-up organic synthesis using planar panel units.

Explanatory Pictures of Research Activities

Recent Research Papers and Achievements

1. N. Aratani, et al., Tetrabenzoperipentacene: Stable Five-Electron Donating Ability and a Discrete Triple-Layered β-Graphite Form in the Solid State, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 8175.
2. N. Aratani, et al., A remarkably strained cyclopyrenylene trimer that undergoes metal-free direct oxygen insertion into the biaryl C-C δ-bond, Chem. Sci. 2019, 10, 6785.
3. N. Aratani, et al., Torsional chirality generation based on cyclic oligomers constructed from an odd number of pyrenes, Chem. Commun. 2019, 55, 9618.
4. N. Aratani, et al., A Series of Soluble Planar Oligorylenes up to Hexarylene, Chin. J. Chem. 2023, 41, 1023.
5. N. Aratani et al., Deep-red circularly polarised luminescent C₇₀ derivatives, Sci. Rep., 2021, 11, 12072.