cfaed Seminar Series

ABSTRACT:

Inorganic nanosheets are obtained by exfoliation of layered materials such as clay minerals and graphites.¹ We found that the colloidal dispersion of inorganic nanosheets form liquid crystal phases,² in which nanosheets are hierarchically organized. The structure formation is driven by entropic force due to their ultimately anisotropic shape with the thickness of 1 nm and microns. We have been investigating fundamental aspects^{3, 4} of these systems as well as applications^5-7 for polymer/nanosheet composites, structural color materials, optical devices, and energy devices. On the other hand, because they (water and clay) are the main constituents of the earth that have been growing living matters, good biocompatibility is another important aspect of these systems. In this talk, I would demonstrate basic aspects of nanosheet liquid crystals and our recent results on the nano-composites of the liquid crystalline inorganic nanosheets with biomatters such as DNA⁸ and tubulin.⁹ What happens if the inorganic nanosheets regulate the hierarchical structure and give electric and optical functions, while they are controlled by DNA computation and are actuated by active molecular motors of microtubules ?  

1) N. Miyamoto, T. Nakato, in Inorganic Nanosheets and Nanosheet-Based Materials, ed. by T. Nakato, J. Kawamata, S. Takagi, Springer, 2017, pp. 201.

2) N. Miyamoto, T. Nakato, Adv. Mater. 2002, 14, 1267.

3) N. Miyamoto, T. Nakato, J. Phys. Chem. B 2004, 108, 6152.

4) F. Geng, R. Ma, A. Nakamura, K. Akatsuka, Y. Ebina, Y. Yamauchi, N. Miyamoto, Y. Tateyama, T. Sasaki, Nature Commun. 2013, 4, 1632.

5) T. Inadomi, S. Ikeda, Y. Okumura, H. Kikuchi, N. Miyamoto, Macromol. Rapid Commun. 2014, 35, 1741.

6) N. Miyamoto, M. Shintate, S. Ikeda, Y. Hoshida, Y. Yamauchi, R. Motokawa, M. Annaka, Chem. Commun. 2013, 49, 1082.

7) N. Miyamoto, Y. Yamada, S. Koizumi, T. Nakato, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 4123.

8) N. Yamguchi, S. Anraku, E. Paineau, C. R. Safinya, P. Davidson, L. J. Michot, N. Miyamoto, Sci. Rep. 2018, 8.

9) R. Kato, A. Kakugo, K. Shikinaka, Y. Ohsedo, A. M. R. Kabir, N. Miyamoto, ACS Omega in press.