Koki Sano, Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, won a Rising Star Award in the 2014 International Symposium on Supramolecular Chemistry and Functional Materials

Koki Sano in the Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, won a Rising Star Award in the 2014 International Symposium on Supramolecular Chemistry and Functional Materials.

<About awarded research>

In nature, various living things, such as morpho butterflies and jewel beetles, exhibit beautiful structural colors.  Structural colors are derived from periodic structures with several-hundred-nanometer long-range ordering, so called photonic crystals.  However, the synthesis of such structures is generally difficult.  In my work, I tried to construct a photonic crystal using inorganic nanosheets, which are characteristic of a ultimate 2D structure consisting only of surface atoms.  I discovered that the nanosheets self-assemble into a long-range ordered structure, upon appropriately tuning the electrostatics between the nanosheets.  As a result, I succeeded in obtaining a photonic crystal that exhibits various colors ranging from the whole visible to the near-infrared regions.

<Comments> 

I’m very honored to receive this award. I would like to thank Prof. Takuzo Aida and lab members.  I also would like to study harder for making further achievements.