Akai Lab.

Bottom-up Investigation for Creating New Functions by Self-Assembled Monolayer

With progress in surface science, a new field in physical chemistry has emerged, and many highly sensitive and high-performance measurement methods have been developed for investigating molecular functions on surfaces. To date, it is possible to examine the arrangement, orientation, electronic state, chemical state, and physical properties of small numbers of molecules adsorbed on surfaces in detail. In our laboratory, using the knowledge of surface physical chemistry and various measurement methods to examine adsorbed molecules, we challenge to design and realize new functional molecular films from a bottom-up perspective. In recent years, we have developed further advanced functions extending from the technology of "self-assembled monolayers", which are formed in solution and are stable even under atmospheric conditions. In particular, we established the self-assembly of hetero-bilayers, which is expected to provide breakthroughs for future applications. Using these bilayers assists in realizing new functions and improving their performance by exploiting the interactions between different functional groups. Currently, we aim to create new molecular devices that control the excitation, charge transfer, charge separation, and chemical state conversion between different functional groups by utilizing these "self-assembled bilayers", with the goal of applying them to neuromorphic molecular devices.

• Kato H.S. et al.,"Strong hydrogen bonds at the interface between proton-donating and -accepting self-assembled monolayers on Au(111)," Langmuir, vol. 34, pp. 2189-2197 (2018)
• Osumi Y. et al.,"Deviation from Point Dipole Analysis for Exciton Quenching in Quaterthiophene-Terminated Self-Assembled Monolayers on Au(111)," J. Phys. Chem. C, vol. 123, pp. 16127-16136 (2019)
• Kanematsu Y. et al.,"A computational examination of the electric-field-induced proton transfer along the interface hydrogen bond between proton donating and accepting self-assembled monolayers,"Chem. Phys. Lett., vol. 741, pp. 137091(1-4) (2020)