Nagoya University · Materials Science
Professor Mitsuo Hara's research lab specializes in the design and fabrication of functional hybrid materials, with a focus on nanostructured meso- and ordered phases in organic/inorganic systems. The lab pioneers strategies for achieving precise molecular alignment and structural control in soft matter, particularly through non-covalent interactions such as π-π stacking and interfacial engineering. Key research directions include the immobilization of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals in silica networks and the development of photoresponsive nanohybrids for applications in photonic devices and optical patterning. The lab also explores surface-mediated alignment mechanisms for advanced materials with tailored optical and electronic properties.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
The development of vertically aligned mesochannels in organic/inorganic hybrid films is in high demand and a challenging issue. However, there are no clear guiding principles to attain the surface-mediated vertical alignment. This work proposes the first clear versatile strategy to achieve the vertical alignment by utilizing the π-π interaction between the organic template molecule of a planar discotic liquid crystalline and 2D π-plane of graphite. The crucial role of the π-π interaction can be
Some dye molecules self-aggregate to exhibit a lyotropic columnar liquid crystal state (chromonic liquid crystal) via pi stacking in relatively highly concentrated aqueous solutions. In this work, the chromonic liquid crystal structure was immobilized, for the first time, with silica networks by way of the sol-gel condensation process. The immobilization of the columnar structure was successfully attained in the presence of 2-(2-aminoethoxy)ethanol, which favorably mediates the interface between
We recently found that the chromonic mesophase structure of an azo dye can be immobilized by a silica network to form a chromonic–silica nanohybrid. This work reports the first demonstration of the macroscopic photoalignment and photopatterning of this nanohybrid via surface-mediated orientational transfer from a photocrosslinkable liquid crystalline polymer (PPLC). Irradiation with linearly polarized light (LPL) 300 nm above the PPLC film followed by an appropriate annealing process led to stro
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