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.