Yuichiro Watanabe

My research uses organic and materials chemistry to address scientific challenges of both fundamental importance and technological impact for organic electronics. Current projects involve the coupling of functional nanomaterials with supramolecular chemistry in ways that develop highly oriented polymeric materials in nano-, meso-, and macroscopic scales. One ongoing research (just started!) is described below:

Field-effect nanoscale control in supramolecular polymers and materials
We propose to use external electric fields for controlling supramolecular polymers with polarized monomers. We investigate whether external electric fields can regulate the conditions for supramolecular polymer formation that proceeds through nucleation and elongation processes. This should enable highly oriented intermediates to be formed within the electrostatic double layer, where the field effect is greatest. We will also explore meso- and macroscopic structures of supramolecular polymers that may be controlled by external field effects, complemented with solid-state structure analyses for insights into how external electric fields can be used to open up the prospect of material applications.

I am very excited and grateful to become a member of the Interdisciplinary Research Institute for the Next Generation, iRING! The iRING environment will boost our research on developing supramolecular polymers and materials for organic electronics by sharing ideas!