News
  • An invited review paper on transport of ions and electrons in nanostructured liquid crystals has been published in Nature Reviews Materials (doi:10.1038/natrevmats.2017.1) (March 2017).
    Takashi Kato, Masafumi Yoshio, Takahiro Ichikawa, Bartolome Soberats, Hiroyuki Ohno, and Masahiro Funahashi
    “Transport of Ions and Electrons in Nanostructured Liquid Crystals”, Nature Rev. Mater., 2, 17001 (2017).

  • A paper on proton conductive materials based-on bicontinuous cubic liquid crystals has been published on accepted in Advanced Materials. (March 2017).
    This work is the results of collaboration with Dr. Takahiro Ichikawa and Prof. Hiroki Ohno (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology).
    Tsubasa Kobayashi, Takahiro Ichikawa, Takashi Kato, and Hiroyuki Ohno “Development of Glassy Bicontinuous Cubic Liquid Crystals for Solid Proton-Conductive Materials", Adv. Mater., 29, 1604429 (2017).

  • A paper on development of one-dimensional CaCO3 hybrids with supramolecular fibrous templates has been published in CrystEngComm (Royal Society of Chemistry) and selected as back cover. (March 2017)
    Haruka Sukegawa, Tatsuya Nishimura, Masafumi Yoshio, Satoshi Kajiyama, Takashi Kato
    “One-Dimensional Supramolecular Hybrids: Self-Assembled Nanofibrous Materials Based on a Sugar Gelator and Calcite Developed along an Unusual Axis”, CrystEngComm, 19, 1580-1584 (2017).


  • An invited review paper on hybrid materials constructed from amorphous calcium carbonate has been published in ChemPlusChem (5th Anniversary Special Issue)(Wiley-VCH) and selected as inside cover. (March 2017)
    Bram Cantaert, David Kuo, Shunichi Matsumura, Tatsuya Nishimura, Takeshi Sakamoto, and Takashi Kato
    “Use of Amorphous Calcium Carbonate for the Design of New Materials”, ChemPlusChem, 82, 107·20 (2017). (5th Anniversary Special Issue)s


  • A review paper on computer simulation for crystallization of calcium carbonate has been accepted in J. Jpn. Assocn. Cryst. Growth. This paper is collaboration with Dr. Hiroki Nada (AIST).
    Hiroki Nada, Hidekazu Tomono, Tatsuya Nishimura, Takeshi Sakamoto, and Takashi Kato
    “Relationship between Structure of Amorphous Calcium Carbonate and Structure of Crystal Nucleated from It: Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study”, J. Jpn. Assocn. Cryst. Growth, in press.


  • The 11th SPSJ International Polymer Conference (IPC2016) (The Society of Polymer Science, Japan)
    IPC 2016 Young Scientist Poster Award
    Masanari Nakayama (Ph. D student) received IPC 2016 Young Scientist Poster Award for his research "Biomimetic Synthesis of Colloidal Inorganic/Polymer Hybrid Liquid Crystals" at the 11th SPSJ International Polymer Conference (IPC2016) held in 13-16 December, 2016. (26 December, 2016)
    See details



  • CSJ (The Chemical Society of Japan) Chemical Festa Awards 2016:
    Daniel Högberg (Graduate Student, center left), Masanari Nakayama (Graduate Student, center right), Ryohei Ohishi (Graduate Student, right),and Daisuke Yamaguchi (Graduate Student, left) received poster awards at The 6th CSJ Chemical Festa held between 14-16 November, 2016. (8 December 2016)



  • Prof. Dick J Broer, Dr. Danqing Liu, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, visited the Kato Group on Tuesday, November 22, 2016 and gave us the seminar entitled "Liquid Crystals as a New Tool for Lithographic Structuring", "Dynamic Surface Topographies at Liquid Crystal Network Coatings".
  • A paper on development of inorganic/organic hybrid thin films based on calcium phosphates has been published in CrystEngComm (Royal Society of Chemistry) and selected as back cover. This work is the results of collaboration with Prof. Chikara Ohtsuki (Nagoya University). (November 2016)
    Satoshi Kajiyama, Takeshi Sakamoto, Moe Inoue, Tatsuya Nishimura, Taishi Yokoi, Chikara Ohtsuki, Takashi Kato
    “Rapid and Topotactic Transformation from Octacalcium Phosphate to Hydroxyapatite (HAP): a New Approach to Self-Organization of Free-Standing Thin-Film HAP-Based Nanohybrids”, CrystEngComm, 18, 8388-8395 (2016).


  • A paper on dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) containing liquid-crystalline (LC) electrolytes has been published in Chemistry of Materials (doi: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.6b01590). This article was selected as “Cover”. This work is the result of a collaboration with Prof. Hiroshi Segawa, Prof. Satoshi Uchida (The University of Tokyo) and Prof. Lars Kloo (Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden). (September 2016)
    Daniel Högberg, Bartolome Soberats, Ryo Yatagai, Satoshi Uchida, Masafumi Yoshio, Lars Kloo, Hiroshi Segawa, and Takashi Kato
    "Liquid-Crystalline Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: Design of TwoDimensional Molecular Assemblies for Efficient Ion Transport and Thermal Stability",
    Chem. Mater. , 28, 6493-6500 (2016).

  • 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Prof. Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Prof. J. Fraser Stoddart, and Prof. Bernard L. Feringa. Prof. Sauvage and Prof. Stoddart are our collaborators. Congratulations!
    The copublishied papers with Prof. Sauvage and Prof. Stoddart are as follows.

    Copublished papers with Prof. Sauvage
    • A Liquid-Crystalline [2]Catenane and Its Copper(I) Complex
    E. D. Baranoff, J. Voignier, T. Yasuda, V. Heitz, J.-P. Sauvage*, and T. Kato*, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 46(25), 4680-4683 (2007).
    • Macrocycle-Based Liquid Crystals : A Study of Topological Effects on Mesomorphism
    E. D. Baranoff, J. Voignier, T. Yasuda, V. Heitz, J.-P. Sauvage*, and T. Kato*, Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst., 509, 165-172 (2009).

    Copublished papers with Prof. Stoddart
    • A Liquid-Crystalline Bistable [2] Rotaxane
    I. Aprahamian, T. Yasuda, T. Ikeda, S. Saha, W. R. Dichtel, K. Isoda, T. Kato*, and J. F. Stoddart*, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 46(25), 4675-4679 (2007).
    • Clicked Interlocked Molecules
    I. Aprahamian, O. S. Miljanic, W. R. Dichtel, K. Isoda, T. Yasuda, T. Kato, and J. F. Stoddart*, Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn., 80(10), 1856-1869 (2007). (Vol. 80 Commemorative Accounts)
    • A Layered Liquid Crystalline Droplet
    Y.-L. Zhao, N. Erina, T. Yasuda, T. Kato*, and J.F. Stoddart*, J. Mater. Chem., 19(21), 3469-3474 (2009).
    • A Redox-Switchable [2]Rotaxane in a Liquid-Crystalline State
    T. Yasuda, K. Tanabe, T. Tsuji, K. K. Coti, I. Aprahamian, J. F. Stoddart*, and T. Kato*, Chem. Commun., 46(8), 1224-1226 (2010).

    Liquid Crystalline Rotaxane



  • A paper on bio-functional liquid crystals based on bioconjugated mesogens "Self-Assembly of Bioconjugated Amphiphilic Mesogens Having Specific Binding Moieties at Aqueous-Liquid Crystal Interfaces", Chem. Mater., 28, 1170-1178 (2016) was introduced as a good example in the table of contents (ToC) in the Editorial of Chem. Mater. .
    Chem. Mater., 28, 1589-1590, (2016). [Table of Contents]

  • Progress Report on "Mechanoresponsive Luminescent Materials", Adv. Mater., 28, 1073-1095 (2016) has been selected as a highly cited paper and hot paper in Materials Science by Thomson Reuters, USA.


  • The paper on an organic radical gelator exhibiting redox-active properties has been published in Chemistry Letters (The Chemical Society of Japan) and selected as Editorfs Choice. (August 2016)
    Daisuke Yamaguchi, Hiroki Eimura, Masafumi Yoshio and Takashi Kato "Redox-Active Supramolecular Fibers of a Nitronyl Nitroxide-Based Gelator", Chem. Lett., 45, 863-865 (2016).


  • Dr. Satoshi Kajiyama has become Assistant Professor of Kato Laboratory from 1st July, 2016.


  • The paper on a liquid crystalline gel exhibiting magneto-active properties has been published in Chemistry - A European Journal (Wiley-VCH). This work is the results of collaboration with Prof. Shin-ichi Ohkoshi (Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo). (June 2016)
    Hiroki Eimura, Yoshikazu Umeta, Hiroko Tokoro, Masafumi Yoshio, Shin-ichi Ohkoshi and Takashi Kato
    "Self-Assembled Fibers Containing Stable Organic Radical Moieties: Alignment and Magnetic Properties in Liquid Crystals", Chem. Eur. J., 22, 8872- 8878 (2016).



  • The paper on a biomineralization-inspired procedure for the development of ZnO thin films has been published in Chemistry EA European Journal (Wiley-VCH) and selected as hot paper. This work is the results of collaboration with Prof. Hideki Sakai (Tokyo University of Science).(June 2016)
    Shunichi Matsumura, Yoshimasa Horiguchi, Tatsuya Nishimura, Hideki Sakai, and Takashi Kato
    "Biomineralization-Inspired Preparation of Zinc Hydroxide Carbonate/Polymer Hybrids and Their Conversion to Zinc Oxide Thin-Film Photocatalysts", Chem. Eur. J., 22, 7094-7101 (2016).



  • Prof. Luh, Tien-Yau, National Taiwan University, Taiwan visited the Kato Group on Wednesday, April 13, 2016 and gave us the seminar entitled "Polymers as Confined Scaffolds for Interactions between pi-Electronic Systems".

  • A paper on the mechanochromic luminescent liquid crystals has been published in Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Royal Society of Chemistry, the Special Issue of Shape-Responsive Fluorophores and selected as cover image and hot paper. This work is the results of collaborations with Prof. Miki Hasegawa (Aoyama Gakuin University). (April 2016)
    Masato Mitani, Shuhei Ogata, Shogo Yamane, Masafumi Yoshio, Miki Hasegawa, and Takashi Kato "Mechanoresponsive liquid crystals exhibiting reversible luminescent color changes at ambient temperature", J. Mater. Chem. C, 4, 2752-2760 (2016). (Special Issue of Shape-Responsive Fluorophores. Editor, Dr. K. M. Solntsev and Prof. B. Z. Tang.)

  • Dr. Tatsuya Nishimura has been promoted to an associate professor of Kanazawa University. (1 March 2016)

  • Prof. Stuart J. Rowan, Case Western Reserve University, USA visited the Kato Group on Saturday, March 12, 2016 and gave us the seminar entitled "Cellulose Nanocrystals and Responsive Nanocomposites".

  • A Progress Report on mechanoresponsive luminescent materials is published in Advanced Materials, the Special Issue of Nanoarchitectonics for Advanced Materials: Strategy Beyond Nanotechnology (Wiley-VCH). (February 2016)
    This work is the results of collaborations with Dr. Yoshimitsu Sagara and Prof. Christoph Weder (University of Fribourg, Switzerland).
    Yoshimitsu Sagara, Shogo Yamane, Masato Mitani, Christoph Weder, and Takashi Kato "Mechanoresponsive Luminescent Molecular Assemblies: An Emerging Class of Materials", Adv. Mater., 28, 1073-1095 (2016). (Special Issue of Nanoarchitectonics for Advanced Materials: Strategy Beyond Nanotechnology. Editor, Prof. Ariga and Dr. Li.)
  • The paper on bio-functional liquid crystals based on bioconjugated mesogens has been published in Chemistry of Materials (ACS publications). (23 February 2016)
    This paper is the results of collaboration with Prof. Nicholas L. Abbott (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
    Hiroki Eimura, Daniel S. Miller, Xiaoguang Wang, Nicholas L. Abbott, and Takashi Kato, "Self-Assembly of Bioconjugated Amphiphilic Mesogens Having Specific Binding Moieties at Aqueous-Liquid Crystal Interfaces", Chem. Mater., 28, 1170-1178 (2016).

  • The paper on a biomineralization-inspired procedure for the development of ZnO thin films has been accepted in Chemistry EA European Journal (Wiley-VCH). This paper is the results of collaboration with Prof. Hideki Sakai (Tokyo University of Science).(4 February 2016)
    Shunichi Matsumura, Yoshimasa Horiguchi, Tatsuya Nishimura, Hideki Sakai, and Takashi Kato, "Biomineralization-Inspired Preparation of Zinc Hydroxide Carbonate/Polymer Hybrids and Their Conversion to Zinc Oxide Thin-Film Photocatalysts", Chem. Eur. J., 22, 7094-7101 (2016).



  • The paper on the mechanochromic luminescent liquid crystals has been published in Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Royal Society of Chemistry (DOI: 10.1039/c5tc03578c), the Special Issue of Shape-Responsive Fluorophores. This work is the results of collaborations with Prof. Miki Hasegawa (Aoyama Gakuin University). (27 November 2015)
    Masato Mitani, Shuhei Ogata, Shogo Yamane, Masafumi Yoshio, Miki Hasegawa, and Takashi Kato "Mechanoresponsive liquid crystals exhibiting reversible luminescent color changes at ambient temperature", J. Mater. Chem. C, 4, 2752-2760 (2016). (Special Issue of Shape-Responsive Fluorophores. Editor, Dr. Solntsev and Prof. Tang.)

  • Seven high school students visited Kato Lab from Tochiku High School on 12th December, 2015. They enjoyed the lecture on functional liquid crystals given by Prof. Kato and experiments.

  • The paper on the switching of ionic conductivities has been published in Journal of the American Chemical Society. Therein we report on novel nanostructured ammonium liquid crystals featuring the thermal switching of ionic conductivity driven by thermotropic columnar rectangular-columnar hexagonal phase transition (30 October, 2015).
    This work is the result of a successful collaboration between Kato laboratory and the laboratories of Prof. Hiroyuki Ohno (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo, Japan) and Prof. Goran Ungar (University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom).
    Bartolome Soberats, Masafumi Yoshio, Takahiro Ichikawa, Xiangbing Zeng, Hiroyuki Ohno, Goran Ungar and Takashi Kato, "Ionic Switch Induced by a Rectangular-Hexagonal Phase Transition in Benzenammonium Columnar Liquid Crystals", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 137, 13212-13215 (2015).
  • Science seminar for junior high school and high school students, which is organized by the Kanto branch of the Society of Polymer Science, Japan in cooperation with the Japan Science Foundation, was held at Waseda University on 25th July, 2015. The students enjoyed lectures on polymer science given by teachers from companies and universities. Some members of Kato Lab assisted the event.

  • The paper on helical chitin/CaCO3 hybrids has been published in Small (Wiley-VCH). (20 July 2015)
    Shunichi Matsumura, Satoshi Kajiyama, Tatsuya Nishimura, and Takashi Kato, "Formation of Helically Structured Chitin/CaCO3 Hybrids through an Approach Inspired by the Biomineralization Processes of Crustacean Cuticles", Small, 11, 5127-5133 (2015).



  • The paper on alkaline-earth carbonate/oriented chitin hybrids has been published in Chemistry an Asian Journal (Wiley-VCH). We have demonstrated that the oriented chitin template controls crystallization of inorganic crystals through the template effects. (14 July 2015)
    Tatsuya Nishimura, Ken Toyoda, Takahiro Ito, Yuya Oaki, Yukiko Namatame, and Takashi Kato, “Liquid-Crystalline Biomacromolecular Templates for the Formation of Oriented Thin-Film Hybrids Composed of Ordered Chitin and Alkaline-Earth Carbonate”, Chem. Asian J., 10, 2356-2360 (2015).

  • A focus review on "Macromolecular Template for Hybrid Materials" in Polymer Journals has been featured in the official organ of Society of Polymer Science, Japan (SPSJ) “KOBUNSHI HIGH POLYMERS”, 64, 485 (2015) as "Hot Topics".
    Tatsuya Nishimura,
    “Macromolecular Templates for the Development of Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Materials”, Polym. J., 47, 235-243 (2015). (Focus Review, Open Access) Link to the official organ of SPSJ (e-Book).



  • Dr. Ingrid Weiss, Leibniz Institute for New Materials, Germany and Prof. Motomu Tanaka, Heidelberg University, Germany and Kyoto University, Japan visited the University of Tokyo on Monday, May 11, 2015. Dr. Weiss and Prof. Tanaka gave lectures entitled “Biomineralizing Interfaces – An Evolutionary View on Enzymes” and “Modulation of Cellular Contacts via Saccharide-Based Interlayers”, respectively.

  • The paper on fusion materials of carbonate crystals with complex structures and photoreactive polymer matrices has been published in CrystEngComm (Royal Society of Chemistry). (27 April 2015)
    Takeshi Sakamoto, Yosuke Nishimura, and Takashi Kato,“Tuning of Morphology and Polymorphs of Carbonate/Polymer Hybrids Using Photoreactive Polymer Templates”, CrystEngComm, 17, 6947-6954 (2015).

  • The paper on columnar liquid crystals having triphenylborane mesogen has been published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition (Wiley-VCH) and selected as Very Important Paper (VIP).(23 April 2015)
    Tomokatsu Kushida, Ayumi Shuto, Masafumi Yoshio, Takashi Kato, and Shigehiro Yamaguchi, “A Planarized Triphenylborane Mesogen: Discotic Liquid Crystals with Ambipolar Charge-Carrier Transport Properties”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 54, 6922-6925 (2015). Early View (Selected as a VIP).


  • The paper on zwitterionic liquid crystals forming 1D and 3D ion nanochannels has been published in Journal of Materials Chemistry A (Royal Society of Chemistry). (20 March 2015)
    Bartolome Soberats, Masafumi Yoshio, Takahiro Ichikawa, Hiroyuki Ohno, and Takashi Kato, “Zwitterionic Liquid Crystals as 1D and 3D Lithium Ion Transport Media”, J. Mater. Chem. A, 3, 11232-11238 (2015).
  • The paper on ionic liquid crystals forming 2D ion-conductive layers has been published in New Journal of Chemistry (Royal Society of Chemistry). (25 March 2015)
    • Junji Sakuda, Masafumi Yoshio, Takahiro Ichikawa, Hiroyuki Ohno, and Takashi Kato, “2D Assemblies of Ionic Liquid Crystals Based on Imidazolium Moieties: Formation of Ion-Conductive Layers”, New J. Chem. 2015, 39, 4471-4477 (2015), Advance Article.
  • The paper on lithium-ion batteries containing liquid-crystalline (LC) electrolytes has been published in Advanced Functional Materials (Wiley-VCH) and selected as frontispiece. This is the first report on the application of LC electrolytes to lithium-ion batteries. This work is the results of collaborations with Dr. Eiji Hosono and Dr. Haoshen Zhou (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology), and Prof. Hiroyuki Ohno (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology). (25 February 2015)
    Junji Sakuda, Eiji Hosono, Masafumi Yoshio, Takahiro Ichikawa, Takuro Matsumoto, Hiroyuki Ohno, Haoshen Zhou, and Takashi Kato,
    "Liquid-Crystalline Electrolytes for Lithium-Ion Batteries: Ordered Assemblies of a Mesogen-Containing Carbonate and a Lithium Salt"
    Adv. Funct. Mater., 25, 1206-1212 (2015).

  • The paper on fusion materials containing cyclodextrin (CD) and CaCO3 has been published in the Special Issue: Fusion materials of Polymer Journal (Published by the Society of Polymer Science Japan and Nature Publishing Group) (17 December 2014)
    Fangjie Zhu, Tatsuya Nishimura, and Takashi Kato,
    “Organic/Inorganic Fusion Materials: Cyclodextrin-Based Polymer/CaCO3 Hybrids Incorporating Dye Molecules through Host-Guest Interactions”, Polym. J., 47, 122-127 (2015). (Special Issue: Fusion Materials)
  • The work on "the development of hydroxyapatite/cellulose nanofibril hybrids" has been published in the Special Issue: Fusion materials of Polymer Journal (Published by the Society of Polymer Science Japan and Nature Publishing Group) (17 December 2014). This work is the results of collaborations with Prof. Chikara Ohtsuki and Prof. Ayae Sugawara-Narutaki (Nagoya University). (17 December 2014)
    Seira Morimune-Moriya, Sakina Kondo, Ayae Sugawara-Narutaki, Tatsuya Nishimura, Takashi Kato and Chikara Ohtsuki,
    “Hydroxyapatite Formation on Oxidized Cellulose Nanofibers in a Solution Mimicking Body Fluid”, Polym. J., 47, 158-163 (2015). (Special Issue: Fusion Materials)
  • A Focus Review paper entitled “Macromolecular Templates for the Development of Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Materials” has been published in Polymer Journal (Published by the Society of Polymer Science Japan and Nature Publishing Group). This Focus Review described various macromolecular templates for the new hybrid materials.
    Tatsuya Nishimura,
    “Macromolecular Templates for the Development of Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Materials”, Polym. J., 47, 235-243 (2015). (Focus Review, Open Access)

  • 17 Dec, 2014, The work on "Novel hybrid material" is featured in the Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun (Nikkei Sangyo Newspaper).

  • Prof. Takashi Kato has been appointed as a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry: FRSC.
    (December, 2014)

  • A review paper on biomineralization and bio-inspired materials syntheses is published in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, Royal Society of Chemistry (doi:10.1039/C4OB01796J). This paper is the results of collaboration with Prof. Atsushi Arakaki (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology) and Prof. Katsuhiko Shimizu (Tottori University).
    Atsushi Arakaki, Katsuhiko Shimizu, Mayumi Oda, Takeshi Sakamoto, Tatsuya Nishimura, and Takashi Kato,
     “Biomineralization-Inspired Synthesis of Functional Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Materials: Organic Molecular Control of Self-Organization of Hybrids”
    Org. Biomol. Chem., 13, 974-989 (2015).
    [Table of Contents]

  • A paper on dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) containing liquid-crystalline (LC) electrolytes has been published in Chemistry of Materials (doi: 10.1021/cm503090z). This article was selected as “ACS editors’ choice” and it is freely available on the “ACS editors’ choice“ and “Chemistry of Materials” homepages. The new LC-DSSCs exhibit improved power conversion efficiencies at high temperature and continue working up to 120 °C. This work has been highlighted in an article published online on the magazine “Chemical & Engineering News” on November 7th 2014.
    This work is the result of a collaboration with Prof. Hiroshi Segawa, Prof. Satoshi Uchida (The University of Tokyo) and Prof. Lars Kloo (Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden).
    "Nanostructured Two-Component Liquid-Crystalline Electrolytes for High Temperature Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells" by Daniel Högberg, Bartolome Soberats, Satoshi Uchida, Masafumi Yoshio, Lars Kloo, Hiroshi Segawa and Takashi Kato, Chem. Mater., 24, 6496-6502 (2014).
    [Table of Contents]
  • CSJ (The Chemical Society of Japan) Chemical Festa Awards 2014:
    Mr. Akihiro Yamashita (Graduate Student, left), Mr. Junya Uchida (Graduate Student, center), and Mr. Masato Mitani (Graduate Student, right) received poster awards at The 4th CSJ Chemical Festa held between 14-16 october, 2014. (10 November 2014)
  • 4 November, 2014, The 2nd International Symposium on Fusion Materials was held between 2nd -4th November 2014 at the Takeda Hall, the University of Tokyo.
    This symposium were organized by the summarizing group of the MEXT project “Fusion Materials” Grant-in-aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Area No. 2206), Funded by MEXT.
    12 orals and 71 posters from the project were presented.
    Plenary lectures were given by international advisors.

    Stephen Mann   (University of Bristol, UK)
    Helmut Cölfen    (University of Konstanz, Germany)
    Joanna Aizenberg            (Harvard University, USA)
    Nico A.J.M. Sommerdijk   (Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands)
    Michael Aizenberg            (Harvard University, USA)
    Fiona Meldrum (University of Leeds, UK)
    David Kisailus   (University of California Riverside, USA)


  • CREST JST project, "Creative Development of Innovative Transport Materials Based on Self-Organized Liquid-Crystalline Polymers Forming Soft-Nanopores" (project leader: Takashi Kato) has launched in the research area of "Creation of Innovative Functional Materials with Advanced Properties by Hyper-Nano-Space Design". CREST is a funding program of Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) for team-oriented research with the aim of achieving the strategic gorals set forth by the government. (1 October 2014)
  • Dr. Etienne Baranoff, University of Birmingham, UK visited the Kato Group on Friday, September 19, 2014 and gave us the seminar entitled "Cyclometalated iridium(III) complexes To OLEDs materials... and beyond". He is an alumnus of the Kato group (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2004-2006); A representative publication: Etienne D. Baranoff, Julie Voignier, Takuma Yasuda, Valerie Heitz, Jean-Pierre Sauvage, and Takashi Kato
    "A Liquid-Crystalline [2]Catenane and Its Copper(I) Complex"
    Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 46, 4680-4683 (2007).


  • The paper on the development of patterned hybrid materials using thermoresponsive polymer has been published in this Special Issue of Polymer Journal (Published by the Society of Polymer Science Japan and Nature Publishing Group). (August 2014)
    Yulai Han, Tatsuya Nishimura, and Takashi Kato,
    "Biomineralization-inspired approach to the development of hybrid materials: preparation of patterned polymer/strontium carbonate thin films using thermoresponsive polymer brush matrices".
    Polym. J., 46, 499-504 (2014) (Special Issue: Biorelated Polymers and Materials)

  • Prof Kato gave a Plenary Lecture at the 25th International Liquid Crystal Conference.
    Takashi Kato, "Nanostructured Functional Liquid Crystals for Energy and Environment ", the 25th International Liquid Crystal Conference (ILCC2014), Dublin, Ireland, 4 July 2014.

  • The paper on the photocontrol of ion-transporting ionic pathways has been published in Journal of the American Chemical Society. This work is the results of collaboration with Prof. Hiroyuki Ohno (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology). (9 July 2014)
    Bartolome Soberats, Emi Uchida, Masafumi Yoshio, Junko Kagimoto, Hiroyuki Ohno, and Takashi Kato,
    "Macroscopic Photocontrol of Ion-Transporting Pathways of a Nanostructured Imidazolium-Based Photoresponsive Liquid Crystal"
    J. Am. Chem. Soc., 136, 9552-9555 (2014).
  • Science seminar for junior high school and high school students, which is organized by the Kanto branch of the Society of Polymer Science, Japan in cooperation with the Japan Science Foundation, was held at the Science Museum in Tokyo on 12th July, 2014. The students enjoyed lectures on polymer science given by teachers from companies and universities. Some members of Kato Lab assisted the event.

  • Dr. Takeshi Sakamoto has received Award for Encouragement of Research in Polymer Science, the Society of Polymer Science, Japan for his research "Development of Polymer/Inorganic Hybrid Materials through Self-Organization Processes". (May, 2014)

  • The work on "the development of CaCO3/PNIPAm hybrid thin films with distinctly different crystallographic orientations" has been published in CrystEngComm (Royal Society of Chemistry). This paper reports on the use of stimuli-responsive polymer brush matrices for the morphological and orientational tuning of calcium carbonate/polymer hybrid thin films. (7 May 2014)
    Yulai Han, Tatsuya Nishimura and Takashi Kato,
    "Morphology Tuning in the Formation of Vaterite Crystal Thin Films with Thermoresponsive Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) Brush Matrices"
    CrystEngComm, 16, 3540-3547 (2014).

  • The paper on "development of transparent hybrid materials using cellulose nanofibers" has been published in Material Horizons (Royal Society of Chemistry), and selected as front cover picture. (1 May 2014)
    Tsuguyuki Saito, Yuya Oaki, Tatsuya Nishimura, Akira Isogai, and Takashi Kato,
    "Bioinspired Stiff and Flexible Composites of Nanocellulose-Reinforced Amorphous CaCO3"
    Mater. Horiz., 1, 321-325 (2014).

  • Dr. Bartolome Soberats has received a CSJ presentation award 2014 for the oral presentation "Zwitterionic Liquid Crystals as Ion-Transporting Media" at the 94th annual meeting of the Chemical Society of Japan, held in Nagoya from 27th to 30th of March of 2014. (10 April 2014)


  • Professor Pablo Ballester, Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies(ICREA), Spain visited the Kato Group on Saturday 15, March, 2014 and gave us the seminar entitled "Supramolecular Chemistry of Calix[4]pyrroles".

  • Professor Wen-Chang Chen, National Taiwan University, Taiwan visited the Kato Group on Saturday 5, March, 2014 and gave us the seminar entitled "Nonvolatile Memory Devices Based on Electroactive Polymeric Materials".

  • Professor Helmut Cölfen, University of Konstanz, Germany visited the Kato Group on Tuesday 4, March, 2014 and gave us the seminar entitled "Bio-inspired Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Materials".
  • The paper on formation and morphology control of CaCO3 thin films using polyrotaxanes has been published in CrystEngComm (Royal Society of Chemistry). (28 February 2014)
    Fangjie Zhu, Tatsuya Nishimura, Hiroki Eimura, and Takashi Kato,
    "Supramolecular Effects on Formation of CaCO3 Thin Films on a Polymer Matrix"
    CrystEngComm, 16, 1496-1501 (2014).
  • Assistant Professor Ivan Aprahamian, Dartmouth College, USA visited the Kato Group on Friday, February 28, 2014 and gave us the seminar entitled "Hydrazone-Based Switches, Fluorophores and Sensors".
  • Professor Chris Ober, Cornell University, USA visited the Kato Group on Thursday 27, February, 2014 and gave us the seminar entitled "Patternable Structures as Interfaces with the Biological Environment".


  • Professor Charl F. J. Faul, University of Bristol, UK visited the Kato Group on Tuesday, February 14, 2014 and gave us the seminar entitled "Complex and Hierarchical Soft Electroactive".
  • The work on "Development of organic/inorganic hybrids consisting of aragonite nanorods" is published in Small, Wiley-VCH. This paper reports on the nanostrucrured hybrid thin films comprising aragonite nanorods. (15 January 2014)
    Satoshi Kajiyama, Tatsuya Nishimura, Takeshi Sakamoto, and Takashi Kato,
    "Aragonite Nanorods in Calcium Carbonate/Polymer Hybrids Formed through Self-Organization Processes from Amorphous Calcium Carbonate Solution" Small., 10, 1643-1641 (2014).

  • Science seminar for junior high school and high school students was held at Science Museum on 7th December, 2013. Students enjoyed lectures on polymers given by teachers from companies and universities. Members of Kato Lab assisted their experiments.

  • The study on the Aggregation-Induced Emission is published in Chemistry Letters (The Chemical Society of Japan). This work is the results of collaboration with Prof. Miki Hasegawa (Aoyama Gakuin University). (15 November 2013)
    Kana Tanabe, Daisuke Kodama, Miki Hasegawa, Takashi Kato,
    "Aggregation-Induced Emission of a Liquid-Crystalline Quinolinium Salt Molecule in Aqueous Solution", Chem. Lett., 43, 184-186 (2014).

  • The work on “Development of organic/inorganic hybrids by using Mg2+ ionsEis published in Chemistry - an Asian Journal, Wiley-VCH. This paper reports on the experimental and simulation studies about the formation of aragonite thin films. This work is the results of collaboration with Dr. Hiroki Nada (AIST) Prof. Hirotsugu Kikuchi (Kyushu University). (13 November 2013)
    Fangjie Zhu, Tatsuya Nishimura, Takeshi Sakamoto, Hidekazu Tomono, Hiroki Nada, Yasushi Okumura, Hirotsugu Kikuchi, and Takashi Kato,
    "Tuning the Stability of CaCO3 Crystals with Magnesium Ions for Formation of Aragonite Thin Films on Organic Polymer Templates", Chem. Asian. J., 8, 3002-3009 (2013).

  • The paper on bicontinuous cubic anhydrous proton transporting liquid crystals has been published in Journal of the American Chemical Society.
    This work is the results of collaboration with Prof. Hiroyuki Ohno (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology). "3D Anhydrous Proton-Transporting Nanochannels Formed by Self-Assembly of Liquid Crystals Composed of a Sulfobetaine and a Sulfonic Acid"
    Bartolome Soberats, Masafumi Yoshio, Takahiro Ichikawa, Satomi Taguchi, Hiroyuki Ohno, and Takashi Kato, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 135, 15286-15289 (2013).

  • Eight high school students visited Kato Lab from Tsuchiura Dai-Ichi High School on 6th August, 2013. They enjoyed the lecture on functional liquid crystals given by Prof. Kato and experiments.
  • Dr. Lauren Zarzar, Harvard University, USA, has joined our laboratory as the JSPS Summer Program Fellow.

  • Dr. Satoshi Kajiyama, who obtained Ph.D on March, 2013, received a student award for the oral presentation "Formation of Polymer/Inorganic Crystalline Hybrid Thin Film" at the annual meeting of the Chemical Society of Japan, held in March, 2013.


  • The work on "Mechanochromic luminescent smectic liquid crystals" is published and the contents appear as the inside front cover of Journal of Materials Chemistry C (Issue 15, 2013).
    Shogo Yamane, Yoshimitsu Sagara, Toshiki Mutai, Koji Araki, and Takashi Kato,
    "Mechanochromic Luminescent Liquid Crystals Based on a Bianthryl Moiety", J. Mater. Chem. C, 1, 2648-2656 (2013).


  • The work on "Steric effects on excimer emission for photoluminescent liquid crystals" is published and the contents appear as the back cover of Chemical Communications (Issue 37, 2013).
    Shogo Yamane, Yoshimitsu Sagara, and Takashi Kato,
    "Steric Effects on Excimer Formation for Photoluminescent Smectic Liquid-Crystalline Materials", Chem. Commun., 49, 3839-3841 (2013).


  • Prof. Jean Fréchet, Vice-President for Research, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, received The 2013(29th) Japan Prize for "Development of chemically amplified resist polymer materials for innovative semiconductor manufacturing process".
    The Japan Prize Website

  • Professor Cassandra Fraser, University of Virginia, USA, has joined our laboratory as the JSPS Invited Fellow.

  • Dr. Mariana Fernandes, University of Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), Portugal, has joined our laboratory as a visiting scholar.

  • Special Issue "Functional Liquid Crystals" in Volume 52 of "Israel Journal of Chemistry" has been published, edited by Professor Takashi Kato (The University of Tokyo) and Professor Sandeep Kumar (Raman Research Institute, India).





  • 6 September, 2012. Professor Takashi Kato and Dr. Yoshimitsu Sagara received the Best Paper Award (Section A) of the Japanese Liquid Crystal Society for Brightly Tricolored Mechanochromic Luminescence from a Single-Luminophore Liquid Crystal: Reversible Writing and Erasing of ../images(Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 50, 9128-9132 (2011).).

  • IUMRS-ICEM 2012 Awards: Dr. Tatsuya Nishimura received an award for encouragement of research in Materials Science for the oral presentation "Development of Self-Organized Polymer/Inorganic Composites by Using Oriented Polymer Templates" at The IUMRS-International Conference on Electric Materials (IUMRS-ICEM 2012).

  • The paper on Co-organisation of Ionic liquids with Amphiphilic compound has been published in Chemical Science.
    "Co-organisation of Ionic liquids with Amphiphilic Diethanolamines: Construction of 3D Continuous Ionic Nanochannels through the Induction of Liquid-crystalline Bicontinuous Cubic Phases"
    Takahiro Ichikawa, Masafumi Yoshio, Satomi Taguchi, Junko Kagimoto, Hiroyuki Ohno and Takashi Kato
    Chem. Sci., 3, 2001-2008 (2012).

  • The paper on Magneto-actice Physical gels has been published in Chemical Science.
    "Supramolecular Approach to the Formation of Magneto-active Physical Gels"
    Yong Wu, Yuki Hirai, Yoshihide Tsunobuchi, Hiroko Tokoro, Hiroki Eimura, Masafumi Yoshio, Shin-ichi Ohkoshi and Takashi Kato
    Chem. Sci., 3, 3007-3010 (2012).

  • Associate Professor Masafumi Yoshio received Award for SPSJ Hitach Chemical Award from the Society of Polymer Science, Japan (2012) for "Construction and Alignment of Charge-Transporting Supramolecular Assemblies"

  • Professor Takashi Kato has been appointed to Editor-in-Chief of "Polymer Journal" (The Society of Polymer Science Japan / Nature Publishing Group).


  • Professor Takashi Kato has been appointed to Editorial Advisory Board of "Small", which is scientific journal published by Wiley-VCH.
  • Professor Takashi Kato has been appointed as the research supervisor of PRESTO (Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology: Sakigake) research “Molecular Technology and Creation of New FunctionsEof Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). PRESTO is a proposal-oriented research promotion program which aims at cultivating the seeds of precursory science and technology by promoting basic researches.

  • High school students visited Kato Lab. (27 students from Matsuzaka High School, Mie prefecture, on 23rd July, 2012, 39 students from Kaho High School, Fukuoka prefecture, on 1st August, 2012, and 9 students from Tsuchiura Dai-Ichi High School, Ibaraki prefecture). They enjoyed the lecture on functional liquid crystals given by Prof. Kato and experiments.

  • Special Issue "Self-Assembled Materials" in Volume 44 of "Polymer Journal" has been published , edited by Professor Takashi Kato(Associate Editor, The University of Tokyo), Professor Sadahito Aoshima(Guest Editor, Osaka University) and Professor Hirotsugu Kikuchi(Guest Editor, Kyushu University). Polymer Journal is owned by the Society of Polymer Science Japan(SPSJ) and it is copublished by SPSJ and Nature Publishing Group(NGP).


  • The paper on stability of liquid-crystalline gels by photo polymerization has been published in this Special Issue.
    "Liquid-Crystalline Gels Exhibiting Electrooptical Light Scattering Properties: Fibrous Polymerized Network of a Lysine-Based Gelator Having Acrylate Moieties"
    Hiroki Eimura, Masafumi Yoshio, Yoshiko Shoji, Kenji Hanabusa, and Takashi Kato
    Polym. J., 44 , 594-599, (2012) (Special Issue).

  • 8th, June, 2012, Funded by Grat-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (2010-2014) The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)
    FUSION MATERIALS Creative Development of Materials and Exploration of Their Function Through Molecular Control
    The 5th Symposium on Fusion Materials took place on 8 June 2012 at the Keio Collaboration Complex, Hiyoshi Campus, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan.


  • Professor Takashi Kato has been appointed to Advisory Board of ChemPlusChem, which is a scientific journal published by Wiley-VCH.


  • Professor Takashi Kato has been appointed to Editorial Board of New Journal of Chemistry (NJC). NJC is scientific journal published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

  • Dr. Tatsuya Nishimura received Award for Encouragement of Research in Polymer Science from the Society of Polymer Science, Japan (2011) for “Development of Organic/Inorganic Hybrids by Using Macromolecular TemplatesE(30 May, 2012)

  • Our paper on ionic bicontinuous cubic liquid crystals has been published in Journal of the American Chemical Society.
    Induction of Thermotropic Bicontinuous Cubic Phases in Liquid-Crystalline Ammonium and Phosphonium Salts
    Takahiro Ichikawa, Masafumi Yoshio, Atsushi Hamasaki, Satomi Taguchi, Feng Liu, Xiang-bing Zeng, Goran Ungar, Hiroyuki Ohno, and Takashi Kato
    J. Am. Chem. Soc., 134, 2634-2643 (2012).

  • Our paper on photoluminescence ionic liquid crystals has been published in Journal of the American Chemical Society.
    Full-Color Tunable Photoluminescent Ionic Liquid Crystals Based on Tripodal Pyridinium, Pyrimidinium, and Quinolinium Salts
    Kana Tanabe, Yuko Suzui, Miki Hasegawa, and Takashi Kato
    J. Am. Chem. Soc., 134, 5652-5661 (2012).

  • receivers CSJ (The Chemical Society of Japan) Chemical Festa Awards 2011:
    Mr. Satoshi Kajiyama (Graduate Student, right) received a poster award for the poster presentation "Preparation of CaCO3 and SrCO3 Thin Films and Their Orientation Induced by Effects of Organic Polymers" and
    Mr. Tomohiro Shimizu (Graduate Student, left) also received a poster award for the poster presentation "Self-Organization and Electrochromism of π-Conjugated Molecules Having Oxyethylene Moieties" at The 1st CSJ Chemical Festa (21st December, 2011).

  • Dr. Yoshimitsu Sagara (former Ph.D. student in Kato Group) received "Award for Encouragement of Research" for the lecture "Tricolored Mechanochromic Luminescent Liquid Crystal Having a Single Luminophore" at 21st MRS-Japan Academic Symposium (11th January 2012).
    Link to the announcement.

  • NPG Asia Materials featured our tri-colored photoluminescent liquid crystal developed by Dr. Sagara and Prof. Kato (Yoshimitsu Sagara and Takashi Kato, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 50, 9128 (2011)) in the Research HighlightEof its website as Luminescent materials: Three for twoE(5th December 2011).
    Link to the Article.

  • Selected as ACS Noteworthy Chemistry: The American Chemical Society(ACS) featured our tri-colored photoluminescent liquid crystal developed by Dr. Sagara and Prof. Kato (Yoshimitsu Sagara and Takashi Kato, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 50, 9128 (2011)) in the Noteworthy ChemistryEof its website as A single luminophore emits three colors of visible lightE24th October 2011).
    Link to the Article.

  • Dr. Takeshi Sakamoto has become Assistant Professor of Kato Laboratory from 16th October, 2011.

  • Dr. Tasuku Nakajima (Research Fellow of JSPS) was appointed as Assistant Professor at Hokkaido University on 1st October, 2011.

  • Our paper on a π-conjugated liquid crystal has been published in Journal of the American Chemical Society
    Electro-Functional Octupolar π-Conjugated Columnar Liquid CrystalsEbr> Takuma Yasuda, Tomohiro Shimizu, Feng Liu, Goran Ungar, and Takashi Kato,
    J. Am. Chem. Soc.,133,13437 (2011).
    Link to the Abstract

  • Chemical and Engineering News (C&E News)Epublished by the American Chemical Society featured our tri-colored photoluminescent liquid crystal in the "Science & Technology ConcentratesEas Liquid Crystal Shines In Three ColorsE
    (15 August 2011 | Vol. 89 Issue 33).

  • Ea href="http://www.newscientist.com/" target="_blank">New ScientistEreported on our Tricolored Photoluminescent Liquid Crystal in the “Short Sharp ScienceEas an article titled "Ah, the beauty of photoluminescent ginkgo leavesE(Published online 05 August 2011) .
    Link to the Article.

  • Ea href="http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/index.asp" target="_blank">Chemistry WorldEpublished by the Royal Society of Chemistry featured our stimuli-responsive tricolored luminescent liquid crystal in the website as a news article titled "Liquid crystals rearrange to glow in three coloursEquot;(Published online 03 August 2011).
    Link to the Article.

  • Our paper on a stimuli-responsive tricolored photoluminescent liquid crystal has been published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
    It has been selected as a "Hot PaperEquot;
    Yoshimitsu Sagara, Takashi Kato, Brightly Tricolored Mechanochromic Luminescence from a Single-Luminophore Liquid Crystal: Reversible Writing and Erasing of ImagesE
    inside coverAngew. Chem. Int. Ed.,50,9128 (2011).This paper is press-released (Published online 03 August 2011). Link to the Press Release
    Link to the Abstract.











  • Visits of High School Students

    Students of Tsuchiura Dai-Ichi High School visited Kato Lab. on 3rd August 2011.




  • A paper on the self-organized photoimaging of CaCO3 thin film has been published on Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.
    "Photoimaging of Self-Organized CaCO3/Polymer Hybrid Films by Formation of Regular Relief and Flat Surface MorphologiesEquot; T. Sakamoto, Y. Nishimura, T. Nishimura, T. Kato, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 50, 5856 (2011).

  • Dr. Ayae Sugawara Narutaki (Alumni member) received Award for Encouragement of Research in Polymer Science from the Society of Polymer Science, Japan (2011)

  • A personal account of Dr. Tatsuya Nishimura was introduced in Growing Polymers on KOBUNSHI HIGH POLYMERS, JAPAN, 60, 401, (2011).

  • Students of Junior High School at Komaba, University of Tsukuba visited Kato Lab. on 18th May 2011.

  • Prof. Takashi Kato has published an Author Profile in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
    • Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.,50,4740 (2011).
    Link to Abstract.

  • The work on "thin films of hydroxyapatite" is selected as a "Editor's Choice ArticleEquot;
    Tatsuya Nishimura, Hirotaka Imai, Yuya Oaki, Takeshi Sakamoto, Takashi Kato,
    "Preparation of Thin-film Hydroxyapatite/Polymer HybridsEquot;
    Chem. Lett., 40, 458-460 (2011).
    • Link to Editor's Choice Articles.

  • A paper on "CaCO3/Liquid Crystalline Chitin-Whisker Hybrid Materials" in Polymer Journals has been featured in Polymers, 60, 291 (2011), (Society of Polymer Science, Japan) as "Hot Topics".
    Yuya Yamamoto, Tsuguyuki Saito, Tatsuya Nishimura, Takashi Kato,
    "CaCO3/Chitin-whisker Hybrids: Formation of CaCO3 Crystals in Chitin-based Liquid-crystalline Suspension",
    Polym. J., 42, 583-586 (2010).
    • Link to the e-Book.














  • Dr. Masafumi Yoshio has been promoted to an associate professor of the Department of Chemistry & Biotechnology, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo from 16th March, 2011.
    ?????
    Dr. M. Yoshio

  • Dr. Kyosuke Isoda (former PhD course student in Kato laboratory) has joined Tokyo University of Science as an assistant professor from 1st April, 2011.

  • Dr. Takuma Yasuda (former assistant professor in Kato Group, currently an associate professor of Kyushu Univ.) received the Young Researchers Award from the Japanese Liquid Crystal Society.(2010)

  • The new project, grant-in-aid for scientific research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT) on innovative areas of "Fusion Materials: Creative Development of Materials and Exploration of Their Function through Molecular ControlEquot;(no. 2206, Project leader: Takashi Kato) has launched.
    Link to http://www.fusion-materials.org/










  • The paper on "3D Ion Channel Based on Bicontinuous Cubic Polymer Structures" has been published in Journal of the American Chemical Society.
    Takahiro Ichikawa, Masafumi Yoshio, Atsushi Hamasaki, Junko Kagimoto, Hiroyuki Ohno, and Takashi Kato
    "ED Interconnected Ionic Nano-Channels Formed in Polymer Films: Self-Organization and Polymerization of Thermotropic Bicontinuous Cubic Liquid Crystals", J. Am. Chem. Soc.,133, 2163-2169 (2011).
    link to Abstract.This Study was supported by the Funding Program for World-Leading Innovative R&D on Science and Technology Innovative Basic Research Toward Creation of High-performance Battery from teh Cabinet Office, Government of Japan

  • Dr. Takahiro Ichikawa joined to Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology as an assistant professor from 1st October, 2010.

  • Prof. Takashi Kato has joined the advisory editorial board of "Chemical Science", a new journal publised by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2010. Link to Journal Home

  • A paper on "CaCO3 /Liquid Crystalline Chitin-Whisker Hybrid Materials" in Polymer Journals has been selected as "Polymer Journal Highlights 2010".
    Yuya Yamamoto, Tsuguyuki Saito, Tatsuya Nishimura, Takashi Kato, " CaCO3 /chitin-whisker hybrids: formation of CaCO3 crystals in chitin-based liquid-crystalline suspension ", Polym. J., 42, 583-586 (2010).
    link to Abstract

  • Visits of High School Students
    High school students visited Kato Lab. for their field trips. (27 students from Ichikawa High School in Chiba prefecture on July 23rd, 2010, 40 students from Matsuzaka High School in Mie prefecture on July 26th, 2010, 46 students from Urawa High School in Saitama prefecture on July 30th, 2010) For each visit, Prof. Kato presented a lecture about "liquid crystalsEquot; then to understand material properties the students prepared liquid crystals and observed them on the microscopes. They enjoyed the experiments and work hard, and some of them asked excellent questions to Prof. Kato and the graduate students of Kato Lab.




  • Prof. Takashi Kato received The Award of the Society of Polymer Science, Japan (2009) for "Development of Functional Polymer Assemblies by the Control of Molecular Order and Interactions".

  • The website of NPG Asia Materials features the paper on the results of "Redox-Switching of A Liquid-Crystalline Rotaxane" as an article entitled "Molecular switches: Re-colouring with redox" (Published online 19 April 2010): Takuma Yasuda, Kana Tanabe, Toru Tsuji, Karla K. Coti, Ivan Aprahamian, J. Fraser Stoddart, and Takashi Kato, "A Redox-Switchable [2]Rotaxane in a Liquid-Crystalline State",
    Chem. Commun., 46, 1224-1226 (2010). Link to Abstract
    The website of NPG Asia Materials is here.

  • An account paper entitled ”Macromolecular Templating for the Formation of Inorganic-Organic Hybrid Structures " has been published in February 2010 issue of MRS Bulletin on "Lessons from Nature-Biomimetic Approaches to Minerals with Complex Structures" (Guest Eds.: N.A.J.M. Sommerdijk and H. Cölfen). This review is focussed on the formation of inorganic-organic hybrid materials through an approach inspired by biomineralization.
    Takashi Kato, Takeshi Sakamoto, and Tatsuya Nishimura, MRS Bulletin, 35, 127-132 (2010).
    link to Abstract

  • The paper on "Liquid-Crystalline π-Conjugated Oligothiophenes", Adv. Funct. Mater., 19, 411-419 (2009) has been selected as a Fast Breaking Paper in Materials Science by Thomson Reuters, USA. The author interview is also published on the Science Watch website.









    Link to Author Commentaries and Abstract

  • Dr. Tatsuya Nishimura was selected to present the Young Scholar Lecturer of CSJ (Chemical Society of Japan) 2010.
    The title of his lecture: Development of Organic/Inorganic Hybrids through Macromolecular Templates with Controlled Structure
    Date: March 27 (2G5-27)

  • A paper on "Redox-Switching of A Liquid-Crystalline Rotaxane" has been published in Chemical Communications and selected as a Hot Article (January 2010). This result has been obtained by collaboration with Professor J. Fraser Stoddart (Northwestern University, USA).
    Takuma Yasuda, Kana Tanabe, Toru Tsuji, Karla K. Coti, Ivan Aprahamian, J. Fraser Stoddart, and Takashi Kato, "A Redox-Switchable [2]Rotaxane in a Liquid-Crystalline State",
    Chem. Commun., 46, 1224-1226 (2010).

  • A review paper on "Functional Columnar Liquid Crystals" in Chemical Communications has been selected as "Most Cited Feature Article Top 10, 2009".
    Takashi Kato, Takuma Yasuda, Yuko Kamikawa, and Masafumi Yoshio, "Self-Assembly of Functional Columnar Liquid Crystals",
    Chem. Commun., 2009, 729-739.











  • A study on "An Effective Strategy for the Macroscopic Alignment of π-Gels" is on the inside front cover of Advanced Materials (October 26, 2009 issue).This work has been done by collaboration with Professor Ayyappanpillai Ajayaghosh (National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, India ).
    Yuki Hirai, S. Santhosh Babu, Vakayil K. Praveen, Takuma Yasuda, Ayyappanpillai Ajayaghosh, and Takashi Kato, "Anisotropic Self-Assembly of Photoluminescent Oligo(p-phenylenevinylene) Derivatives in Liquid Crystals: An Effective Strategy for the Macroscopic Alignment of π-Gels", Adv. Mater., 21, 4029-4033 (2009).















  • A Perspective (a focused review) entitled "Mechanically induced luminescence changes in molecular assemblies" has been published in Nature Chemistry. The Perspective describes various piezochromic luminescent materials, which exhibit changes in luminescent color by mechanical stimuli.
    Yoshimitsu Sagara and Takashi Kato, "Mechanically induced luminescence changes in molecular assemblies",
    Nature Chemistry, 1, 605 (2009).
    Link to Abstract









  • Dr. Yoshimitsu Sagara received a poster award for the poster presentation "Stimuli-Responsive Luminescent Liquid-Crystals" at The 18th Polymer Material Forum.

  • Professor Takashi Kato has received Molecular Science Forum Lecture Professorship from Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science.
    October 14, 2009 [Photo]

  • CSJ (The Chemical Society of Japan) Kanto Branch Poster Presentation Awards 2009:
    Ms. Kana Tanabe received a poster award for the poster presentation "Development of Liquid-Crystalline Cyclophanes Having Ionic Moieties", and
    Mr. Ken Toyoda also received a poster award for the poster presentation "Macroscopically Ordered Thin-Film Formations of Strontium Carbonate on an Ordered Chitin Matrix" at The 3rd Meeting of The Chemical Society of Japan, Kanto Branch. (September, 2009)

  • The work on "Electro-Active Truxene-Based Liquid Crystals" is selected as a VIP paper and is on the Cover Picture of Chemistry EAn Asian Journal (October 5, 2009 issue).
    Kyosuke Isoda, Takuma Yasuda, and Takashi Kato, "Truxene-Based Columnar Liquid Crystals: Self-Organized Structures and Electro-Active Properties", Chem. Asian J., 4, 1619-1625 (2009).













  • Our collaborator, Professor Hiromichi Nagasawa at Department of Applied Biological Chemistry, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo has published a paper on biomineralization in Science. A new protein for nacre formation has been identified.
    Michio Suzuki, Kazuko Saruwatari, Toshihiro Kogure, Yuya Yamamoto, Tatsuya Nishimura, Takashi Kato, Hiromichi Nagasawa, "An Acidic Matrix Protein, Pif, Is a Key Macromolecule for Nacre Formation", Science, 325, 1388-1390 (2009).
    (Related collaboration on Bio-inspired Hybrids)

  • A review paper on liquid-crystalline semiconductors has been published in Polymer Journal. This paper is a SPSJ Hitachi Chemical Award Account.
    Masahiro Funahashi, ”Development of Liquid-Crystalline Semiconductors with High Carrier Mobilities and Their Application to Thin-Film TransistorsE Polym. J., 41, 459-469 (2009).
    Link to Abstract Cover Image

  • Dr. Takuma Yasuda received the CSJ Presentation Award 2009 for the oral presentation "Structural Control and Electro- and Photo-Functions of π-Conjugated Liquid-Crystalline Materials" at the annual meeting of the Chemical Society of Japan, 2009.

  • A review paper on "Electro- and Photoactive Molecular Assemblies of Liquid Crystals and Physical Gels" has been published in Chemistry Letters.
    Takashi Kato, Kana Tanabe, "Electro- and Photoactive Molecular Assemblies of Liquid Crystals and Physical Gels", Chem. Lett., 38, 634 (2009). [PDF]













  • The work on "Liquid-Crystalline π-Conjugated Oligothiophenes " is on the inside front cover of Advanced Functional Materials (February 10, 2009 issue).
    Takuma Yasuda, Hirotaka Ooi, Jun Morita, Yusuke Akama, Kiyoshi Minoura, Masahiro Funahashi, Takeshi Shimomura, and Takashi Kato, "π-Conjugated Oligothiophene-Based Polycatenar Liquid Crystals: Self-Organization and Photoconductive, Luminescent, and Redox Properties", Adv. Funct. Mater., 19, 411-419 (2009).












  • A review paper on "Functional Columnar Liquid Crystals" has been published in Chemical Communications:
    Takashi Kato, Takuma Yasuda, Yuko Kamikawa, and Masafumi Yoshio, "Self-Assembly of Functional Columnar Liquid Crystals", Chem. Commun., 2009, 729-739.











  • IUMRS-ICA 2008 Awards: Dr. Yuya Oaki received an award for encouragement of research in Materials Science for the oral presentation "Spontaneous Formation of Nanosegregated Amorphous Composites Consisting of Calcium Carbonate and an Organic Polymer", and
    Ms. Kana Tanabe also received an award for encouragement of research in Materials Science for the poster presentation "Development of Photoluminescent Liquid Crystals Having Pyridinium Moieties" at The IUMRS-International Conference in Asia 2008.

  • Prof. Takashi Kato has joined the Advisory Board of Journal of Materials Chemistry publised by the Royal Society of Chemistry on 2008.

  • The paper on the results of "An Electrochromic Nanostructured Liquid Crystal Consisting of π-Conjugated and Ionic Moieties; is featured in the website of NPG Asia Materials, produced by NPG Nature Asia Pacific and the Tokyo Institute of Technology, as "Electrochromism: Colorful liquid crystals" (Published online September 2008): Sanami Yazaki, Masahiro Funahashi, and Takashi Kato, "An Electrochromic Nanostructured Liquid Crystal Consisting of π-Conjugated and Ionic Moieties"J. Am. Chem. Soc., 130, 13206 (2008).
    The website of NPG Asia Materials is here.

  • Prof. Takashi Kato received the JLCS Award for "Development of Anisotropic Functional Liquid-Crystalline Materials Formed through Noncovalent Interactions". (JLCS: Japanese Liquid Crystal Society)(September, 2008)

  • Mr. Yoshimitsu Sagara received a student award for the poster presentation "A Stimuli-Responsive Pyrene-based Liquid Crystal: Change of the Photoluminescent Color on the Shear-Induced Phase Transition" at the annual meeting of the Japanese Liquid Crystal Society of Japan, 2008.

  • Associate Prof. Masahiro Funahashi received the SPSJ Hitachi Chemical Award 2008 for "Development of Liquid Crystalline Semiconductors with High Carrer Mobility and Their Application to Field-Effect Transistors". (SPSJ: The Society of Polymer Science,Japan)(September, 2008)

  • The paper on the results of "Liquid-Crystalline Polymer/Inorganic Composites Inspired by Biomineralization" is featured in the website of NPG Asia Materials, produced by NPG Nature Asia Pacific and the Tokyo Institute of Technology, as "Orderly liquid crystals" (Published online 07 May 2008): Tatsuya Nishimura, Takahiro Ito, Yuya Yamamoto, Masafumi Yoshio, and Takashi Kato, "Macroscopically Ordered Polymer/CaCO3 Hybrids Prepared by Using a Liquid-Crystalline Template", Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 47, 2800-2803 (2008).
    The website of NPG Asia Materials is here.

  • Structure and Bonding, Vol. 128, "Liquid Crystalline Functional Assemblies and Their Supramolecular Structures" (Volume editor: Takashi Kato) has been published by Springer. (See details)

  • Mr. Takahiro Ichikawa (graduate student) received a student award for the oral presentation "Formation of Nano-Ion Channel Networks by the Self-Organization of Liquid-Crystalline Ammonium Salts" at The 18th MRS-Japan Academic Symposium (December, 2007).

  • Dr. Emi Uchida received a poster award for the poster presentation "Photoinduced Orientation in Photoreactive Hydrogen-Bonding Liquid Crystalline Polymers and Liquid Crystal Alignment on the Resultant Films", and
    Mr. Harutoki Shimura received the poster award for the poster presentation "Supramolecular Columnar Liquid Crystals Incorporating Ionic Liquids" at The 1st Meeting of The Chemical Society of Japan, Kanto Branch. (The manuscript on this work is published : "Non-Covalent Approach to One-Dimensional Ion Conductors: Enhancement of Ionic Conductivities in Nanostructured Columnar Liquid Crystals", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 130, 1759 (2008).)

  • Ion-conductors having three-dimensional nano-channels have been successfully prepared, using bicontinuous liquid-crystalline nanostructures.
    Takahiro Ichikawa, Masafumi Yoshio, Atsushi Hamasaki, Tomohiro Mukai, Hiroyuki Ohno, and Takashi Kato, "Self-Organization of Room-Temperature Ionic Liquids Exhibiting Liquid-Crystalline Bicontinuous Cubic Phases: Formation of the Network of Nano-Ion Channels", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 129, 10662 (2007).

  • We succeeded in the preparation of liquid-crystalline (LC) interlocked molecules. LC catenane and LC rotaxane form ordered bulk states. These results have been obtained by collaboration with Professor J. Fraser Stoddart (UCLA, USA) and Professor Jean-Pierre Sauvage (University Louis Pasteur, France).
    Ivan Aprahamian, Takuma Yasuda, Taichi Ikeda, Sourav Saha, William R. Dichtel, Kyosuke Isoda, Takashi Kato, and J. Fraser Stoddart, "A Liquid-Crystalline Bistable [2]Rotaxane", Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 46, 4675 (2007).
    Etienne D. Baranoff, Julie Voignier, Takuma Yasuda, Valérie Heitz, Jean-Pierre Sauvage, and Takashi Kato, "A Liquid-Crystalline [2]Catenane and Its Copper(I) Complex", Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 46, 4680 (2007).

  • Mr. Masayuki Kuramoto received a student award for the poster presentation "Effects of the Peptide-Backbone Structures on the Self-Assembled Structures of Liquid-Crystalline Oligopeptides" at the annual meeting of the Japanese Liquid Crystal Society of Japan, 2007.

  • Dr. Masafumi Yoshio received the Young Researchers Award from the Japanese Liquid Crystal Society.

  • The paper "Columnar Liquid-Crystalline Imidazolium Salts. Effects of Anions and Cations on Mesomorphic Properties and Ionic Conductivities" on the results of "Anisotropically Ion-Conductive Liquid-Crystals" has been published as a Selected Paper in Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan (September, 2007 issue).
    Masafumi Yoshio, Takahiro Ichikawa, Harutoki Shimura, Takayoshi Kagata, Atsushi Hamasaki, Tomohiro Mukai, Hiroyuki Ohno, and Takashi Kato
    Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn., 80, 1863-1841 (2007). [PDF]

  • T-LAB 2007"Kougaku Taiken Labo ", an event for the high school students to experience technology organized by School of Engineering, was held at our Hongo campus on August 25. In the event, Professor Kato had a lecture on liquid crystals. Then high school students visited our laboratory, and experienced an experiment on liquid crystals.(Pamphlet)

  • Dr. Tsukasa Hatano received the poster award for the poster presentation "Phosphine Oxide Derivatives as Building Blocks of Non-Conventional Shaped Liquid Crystals", and
    Mr. Harutoki Shimura received the poster award for the poster presentation "One-dimensionally Ion-conductive Liquid-crystalline Materials" at The 2nd Gunma International Symposium on Chemistry(GIS2007).

  • Dr. Emi Uchida received the SPSJ Award for the Outstanding Paper in Polymer Journal sponsored by ZEON for the paper "Influence of Wavelength of Light on Photoinduced Orientation of Azobenzene-Containing Polymethacrylate Film" on the research in University of Hyogo.

  • Mr. Takeshi Sakamoto (graduate student) received a student award for the oral presentation "Pattern Formation of Calcium Carbonate Thin Film Crystals by Photo-Control" at the annual meeting of the Chemical Society of Japan, 2007.

  • Dr. Masahiro Funahashi joined in our laboratory as an associate professor on February 16, 2007.

  • The paper on 1993, "Hydrogen-Bonded Liquid Crystals Built from Hydrogen-Bonding Donor and Acceptors. Infrared Study on the Stability of the Hydrogen Bond between Carboxylic Acid and Pyridyl Moieties" is republished in the Liquid Crystals(November 2006 issue: 20th anniversary special issue).
    Takashi Kato, Toshiyuki Uryu, Fumiko Kaneuchi, Chihiro Jin, and Jean M. J. Fréchet, Liq. Cryst. (Special Issue: 20th Anniversary Issue), 33, 1434-1437 (2006).
    A commentary paper is also published.
    "Development of Supramolecular Hydrogen-Bonded Liquid Crystals and its Impact on Liquid-Crystalline and Materials Science",
    Takashi Kato and Jean M. J. Fréchet, Liq. Cryst. (Special Issue: 20th Anniversary Issue), 33, 1429-1433 (2006).

  • The work on "Spiropyran-Based Columnar Liquid Crystals" is on the inside cover of Chemical Communications (November, 2006 issue):
    Boon-Hooi Tan, Masafumi Yoshio, Takahiro Ichikawa, Tomohiro Mukai, Hiroyuki Ohno, and Takashi Kato, "Spiropyran-Based Liquid Crystals: The Formation of Columnar Phases via Acid-Induced Spiro-Merocyanine Isomerisation", Chem. Commun., 2006, 4703-4705.
    [COVER IMAGE]

  • Dr. Takuma Yasuda received the poster award at the Japanese Liquid Crystal Conference 2006.

  • Dr. Masaya Moriyama has been promoted to an associate professor of Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, Oita University.

  • The paper "Reversible On-Off Photoswitching of Hydrogen Bonding for Self-Assembled Fibers Comprising Physical Gels" on the results of "Photo-Responsive Physical Gels" has been published as a Selected Paper in Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan (June, 2006 issue).
    Masaya Moriyama, Norihiro Mizoshita, and Takashi Kato
    Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn., 79, 962-964 (2006). [PDF]
  • The work on "A Columnar Liquid Crystal Based on Triphenylphosphine Oxide" is on the cover of Chemical Communications (January, 2006 issue):
    Tsukasa Hatano and Takashi Kato, " A Columnar Liquid Crystal Based on Triphenylphosphine Oxide - Its Structural Changes upon Interaction with Alkaline Metal Cations ", Chem. Commun., 2006, 1277-1279.
    [COVER IMAGE]

  • A review paper on "Functional Supramolecular Liquid-crystalline Materials" has been published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition:
    Takashi Kato, Norihiro Mizoshita and Kenji Kishimoto, "Functional Liquid-Crystalline Assemblies: Self-Organized Soft Materials", Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 45, 38-68 (2006).
    [TITLE IMAGE]

  • Professor Takashi Kato received the 1st JSPS PRIZE (Chemistry).
    [JSPS PRIZE program outline]

  • The work on "Bistable Nematic Liquid Crystal Gels" is on the cover of Advanced Materials (March, 2005 issue): Norihiro Mizoshita, Yuki Suzuki, Kenji Hanabusa, and Takashi Kato, "Bistable Nematic Liquid Crystals with Self-Assembled Fibers", Adv. Mater., 17, 692-696 (2005).
    [COVER IMAGE]

  • The paper on the results of collaboration with Prof. Makoto Fujita is selected as a VIP Paper in Chemistry - A European Journal (April 8, 2005 issue).

  • The paper on the results of "Thermotropic Liquid-Crystalline Oligopeptides" is selected as a Hot Paper in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry and is introduced in Chemical Science (March, 2005 issue)
    The article in Chemical Science is here.

  • The work on "Thermotropic Liquid-Crystalline Oligopeptides" is on the cover of Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry (February 24, 2005 issue): Masayuki Nishii, Toru Matsuoka, Yuko Kamikawa, and Takashi Kato, "Thermotropic Liquid-Crystalline Peptide Derivatives: Oligo(glutamic acid)s Forming Hydrogen-Bonded Columns", Org. Biomol. Chem., 3, 875-880 (2005).
    [COVER IMAGE]

  • The work on "Self-Assembly of Folic Acid Derivatives" is on the cover of Chemistry - A European Journal (December 3, 2004 issue): Yuko Kamikawa, Masayuki Nishii, and Takashi Kato, "Self-Assembly of Folic Acid Derivatives: Induction of Supramolecular Chirality by Hierarchical Chiral Structures", Chem. Eur. J., 10, 5942-5951 (2004).
    [COVER IMAGE]

  • The paper on the results of "One Dimensional Assembly of Ionic Liquids" is introduced in Chemical & Engineering News(February 2, 2004 issue) and Nature Materials (March 1, 2004 issue): Masafumi Yoshio, Tomohiro Mukai, Hiroyuki Ohno, and Takashi Kato, "One-Dimensional Ion Transport in Self-Organized Columnar Ionic Liquids", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 126, 994-995 (2004).
    The article in Nature Materials is here.

  • Professor Takashi Kato received the 17th IBM Japan Science Award (Chemistry).
    [PRESS RELEASE] (in Japanese)

  • The paper on the results of "Patterned Calcium Carbonate Thin Films" is selected as a "Hot Paper" in Angewandte Chemie: Ayae Sugawara, Takeshi Ishii, and Takashi Kato, "Self-Organized Calcium Carbonate with Regular Surface-Relief Structures", Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 42, 5299-5303 (2003).

  • The work on "Development of a New Urea Gelator" is on the cover of Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry (October 7, 2003 issue): Kazuhiro Yabuuchi, Emmanuel Marfo-Owusu, and Takashi Kato, "A New Urea Gelator: Incorporation of Intra- and Intermolecular Hydrogen Bonding for Stable 1D Self-Assembly", Org. Biomol. Chem., 1, 3464-3469 (2003).
    [COVER IMAGE]

  • The work on "Liquid Crystal Gels" is on the cover of Advanced Functional Materials (April, 2003 issue): Norihiro Mizoshita, Kenji Hanabusa, and Takashi Kato, "Fast and High-Contrast Electro-optical Switching of Liquid-Crystalline Physical Gels: Formation of Oriented Microphase-Separated Structures", Adv. Funct. Mater., 13, 313-317 (2003).
    [COVER IMAGE]
  • "Liquid crystals" issue (Subject Editor: Takashi Kato) has been published in Current Opinion in Solid State and Materials Science, 6 (6), pp. 513-587 (2002). It collects 8 review papers on advanced liquid crystal materials.
    [Editorial Overview]

  • The paper on the results of collaboration with Prof. Eiichi Nakamura (School of Science) was published in Nature (October 17, 2002 issue): M. Sawamura, K. Kawai, Y. Matsuo, K. Kanie, T. Kato, and E. Nakamura, "Stacking of Conical Molecules with a Fullerene Apex into Polar Columns in Crystals and Liquid Crystals", Nature, 419, pp.702-705 (2002).
    (Please also see Chem. & Eng. News, October 21, 2002 issue, p.15)

  • A paper has been published in Science (March 29, 2002 issue): T. Kato, "Self-Assembly of Phase-Segregated Liquid Crystal Structures", Science, 295, pp.2414-2418 (2002).
    You can read the content: [ABSTRACT]/[FULL TEXT]

  • The work on "Layered Ionic Liquids" is on the cover of Advanced Materials (March 4, 2002 issue): Masafumi Yoshio, Tomohiro Mukai, Kiyoshi Kanie, Masahiro Yoshizawa, Hiroyuki Ohno, and Takashi Kato, "Layered Ionic Liquids: Anisotropic Ion Conduction in New Self-Organized Liquid-Crystalline Materials", Adv. Mater., 14, pp.351-354 (2002).
    [COVER IMAGE]

  • The work on "Liquid Crystal Folic Acids" is on the cover of Macromolecular Rapid Communications (July 30, 2001 issue): Takashi Kato, Norihiro Mizoshita, and Kiyoshi Kanie, "Hydrogen-Bonded Liquid Crystalline Materials: Supramolecular Polymeric Assembly and the Induction of Dynamic Function", Macromol. Rapid Commun., 22, pp.797-814 (2001).
    [COVER IMAGE]

  • The work on "Liquid Crystal Gels" is on the cover of Advanced Materials (June 2, 1998 issue): T. Kato, T. Kutsuna, K. Hanabusa, and M. Ukon, "Gelation of Room Temperature Liquid Crystals by the Association of a trans-1,2-Bis(amino)cyclohexane Derivative", Adv. Mater., 10, pp.606-608 (1998).
    [COVER IMAGE]

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