March, 2023
Highlights of Research Activities (Kazue Kurihara)

Kazue Kurihara is internationally well-known for her research on the surface forces
measurement which she has made tireless efforts to broaden the scope of themeasurement for materials science including instrumentation. She also offered her
services for the science communities for both domestic and international ones
including IASIS (International Association of Colloid and Interface Scientists) for which
she was a president from 2012 to 2015. She is always happy to help colleagues andpromote science.
Kurihara, who is currently a research professor of the Tohoku University, is adistinguished scientist of multidisciplinary background from synthetic chemistry toapplied physics, while keeping her major interest in colloid and interface science.
Unlike the most of her colleagues in Japan who stay at the same institution for life, she
worked at various top groups in the field of colloid and interface science during her
early career, which provided her with the opportunity to do multidisciplinary researchand to be linked to the international network. She worked at Texas A&M and Clarkson
University as a post-doc at the Prof. Janos Fendler's group after graduating from the
University of Tokyo. She then returned to Japan and worked with Prof. Iwao Tabushi,
an expert in the host-guest chemistry, of Kyoto University, went to Stockholm at theInstitute of Surface Chemistry as a visiting scientist when Prof. Per Stenius was the
director, where she learnt basics of the surface forces measurement. In 1987, shereturned Japan to work as a group leader for the five years molecular architecture
project directed by Prof. Toyoki Kunitake of Kyushu University where she could start
her surface forces measurement. During these years, she studied various functionsof molecular assemblies such as micelles liposomes, vesicles, microemulsions andmonolayers, and demonstrated many interesting results, which include the first
demonstrations of photo-induced formation of gold nanoparticles in microemulsions in
1983 and of molecular recognition employing hydrogen bonding at surface monolayers
on water in 1991.
In 1992, she was promoted to an associate professor at the applied physics
department of the Nagoya University, then in 1997 to a full professor at the institute ofchemical reaction science (Iater became the institute of multidisciplinary research for1

advanced materials), the Tohoku University.

At Nagoya, she determined to focus on

the surface forces measurement and hoped to extend the scope of the surface forces
measurement with her multidisciplinary background. With the support of the machine
shop of the department, she started to construct the apparatus by herself, and has
made original contributions to the measurement since.
Surface forces measurement employing surface forces apparatus (SFA) is known
as a very demanding technique, so the field has perhaps not sufficiently grown in spiteof its importance and advantages. Kurihara has made efforts to remove various
existed limitations of the conventional surface forces measurement such as sample
availability (e.g. smooth silica substrates prepared only by sputtering without suing glue
to remove the limitation that previously only transparent mica was a practical substrate),
temperature control, and to extend the potential of the measurement both in
instrumentation, sample preparation and characterization.
She developed (1) twin path SFA, an only practical SFA for opaque samples, which
was a basic setting for electrochemical SFA and SFA fluorescence spectroscopy; (2)a high (till 140 ℃) and low temperature (till -15 ℃) SFA, the latter was used forstudying ice: and (3) the resonance shear measurement (RSM) which monitors theshear response for studying confined liquids, surface deformation of gel and rubber.
She has constructed these apparatuses using the university machine shops. Besides,
she offered the design to ADVANCE RIKO Co. Ltd., which now commercially provides
the twin-path SFA & RSM. This machine was sold to several major Japanesecompanies (Hitachi, Ltd. and Idemitsu Kosan Co. Ltd. etc.) and helped their R&D's.
By taking advantages from her early research experiences on molecular selfassemblies for surface modification and characterization, she used the technique forstudying the solid-liquid interfaces and observed intriguing phenomena, which includehydrogen-bonded organization of liquids at the interfaces. She also extensively
studied confined liquids, and at earlier time biologically relevant systems such aspolyelectrolytes and enzymes. These achievements were possible only by someone
like her who has multidisciplinary background. Her colleague once called her “trail
blazer”, and another mentioned her study the result by “heroic efforts”. Her majorachievements are listed at the end of this note.
Kurihara has published to date 225 peer-reviewed research articles and reviews,
and 41 book chapters while constructing many apparatus by herself.
Her
achievements have been internationally recognized by various awards including 2022
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IACIS Lectureship Award, 2016 SPSJ Award for Outstanding Achievement in Polymer
Science and Technology, The Society of Polymer Science, 2013 IUPAC Distinguished
Women in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering Award, and the A.E. Alexander
Lectureship Award 2011 from the Australian Society of Colloid and Interfaces.
She
was an elected member of the science council of Japan since 2005.

< Major Research Achievements>
Twin-path Surface Force Apparatus (Twin-path SFA)
Kurihara developed a new surface forces apparatus (SFA) called Twin-path
Surface Forces Apparatus using modified two-beam interferometry for the distancedetermination [29 in the list]. This apparatus can be used to study opaque samples
such as metals, and has removed the limitation of the conventional SFA: the sample
substrates need to be transparent, so only mica has been practically used. This SFA
has the potential for dramatically expanding the scope of the surface forces
measurement: the measurements on new samples using both of various substrates
and various surface modification methods including thiol derivatives on gold substrates[17].
Electrochemical SFA (Ec-SFA) based on the twin-path SFA can study the double
layer force between identical electrodes unlike the previous Ec-SFA for which one
surface need to be transparent mica. It was used to study selective adsorption ofanion [12, 25] and quantitative evaluation of strongly and loosely bound counterions of
the electric double layer on Au electrode [17], proton adsorption and hydrogen
evolution on Pt electrode [9]. Recently, she observed an intriguing phenomenon, thesudden current increase, when the electrodes approached below 5 nm. The increaseis two orders greater than the conventional feedback current, and interpreted byorganized redox species between the electrode [1].
The twin-path SFA can be placed under the fluorescence microscope to perform
fluorescence spectroscopy.
Using appropriate fluorescence dye probes, thisspectroscopic SFA can the local viscosity of the confined liquid [24] and the interfacial
pH of mica and silica [2, 23].
For these studied, Kurihara prepared various smooth substrates including metals.
She also developed a method to prepare transparent smooth silica substrates for
FECO (fringes equal chromatic order used for distance determination) by only
sputtering [10], which can be used for chemical modification and interaction
measurements in organic solvents [5, 6] because no polymer glue is necessary.
3Temperature control is another difficult task for SFA. Kurihara has constructeda low temperature control device (till - 15 ℃) for ice studies [3, 4, 7] and a hightemperature one ( till 140 ℃) [not in English publication] with a small deviation of ±0.2 ℃.
Resonance Shear Measurement (RSM)
Shear force measurement is one of the active areas in the surface forces
measurements with taking advantages of large surface areas (ca. 30 μm in diameterat their contact) used and the sensitive control of the surface separation. Kurihara’s
original contribution to the shear measurement is the development of the resonancemethod [40], which has various advantages: the high sensitivity to changes inrheological and tribological properties of samples and easy operation. The RSM wasused for characterizing aqueous NaCl solution between mica surfaces [33]. The
results show the effective viscosity of water for the separation less than 1 nm is 2-4
orders of magnitude larger than the bulk value while it exhibits high lubrication effect.
This study by RSM has provided a comprehensive picture for the dynamics of confinedwater thinner than a few nanometers, which was the controversial problem at the timeof the study.
Recently, the RSM has been used to resolve the friction of gel [14] and polymer
brushes [5] to the contribution of deformation, viscosity and surface interactions. This
will enable us to design better lubricants at the molecular level.
Characterization of Confined Liquids between Solid Substrates
Liquids confined in nano-spaces exhibit different properties from those in the bulk.
They attract increasing attention from their importance in basic science andapplications including micro- and nano-devices and tribology. Kurihara’s studies
using RSM revealed interesting, previously unknown behavior of confined liquids asfollows: (1) the effect of confinement preventing the nematic liquid crystal, 4-cyano-4’hexylbiphenyl, from the electric field induced orientation [19]; (2) Different viscosity andlubricity observed for water confined between silica surfaces of the different silanol
densities [20]; (3) Different viscosity values of ionic liquids nano-confined between
silica surfaces depending on the kind of anions [26], of which molecular mechanism
was interpreted by simulation [15, 18] and X-ray diffraction[8]: (4) Increase in theviscosity of confined dioctylphthalate, which provides a new model explaining the roleof the viscosifier, alkyl-coated CaCO3 particles [30].
The RSM method is also used for characterizing model and practical lubricants in
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confined spaces, providing new molecular-level of insights into macroscopic behaviorof lubrication [11, 16, 27].
Kurihara’s various efforts for understanding confined liquids include: the X-lay
diffraction study of a liquid crystal in the thickness down to ca. 2 nm [8]; realistic
simulation reflecting the molecular natures of confined liquids by collaboration with thesimulation specialists [15, 18, 21].
Surface Molecular Macrocluster Formed by Adsorption from Binary Liquids
Kurihara has found hydrogen bonded organizations of simple molecules such as
alcohols [34, 36, 37], acids[39], phenol [31], amides[28, 35], and water [22] adsorbed
on silica surfaces from their binary mixtures with cyclohexane. This surface molecularassembly is named “surface molecular macrocluster”. The long-range attraction
associated with such adsorption, of which thickness is typically 10 to 30 nm for alcohol,
has revealed the larger interfacial energy due to the oriented molecules than the value
for the bulk phase separation although such adsorption can occur in completely
miscible binary liquids. The long ranged attraction is modulated by the kind of adsorbed
molecules and the dynamics between the interfacial and the bulk phase. The force
can be used to reveal unknown phenomena and distinguish the presence of different
organizations [10, 22].
Characterization of Polyelectrolyte Brushes and Biologically Relevant Molecules
Her early studies have been conducted extensively using the Langmuir Blodgett
films for surface modification. They include systematic measurements onpolyelectrolyte brushes depending on their chain length and density [40, 43, 46], andthe pH and salt concentrations of the medium [38]; molecular recognition involved innucleic acid base paring [42] and enzyme reaction [32].

List of Relevant Publications
1.

Nano-confined Electrochemical Reaction Studied by Electrochemical Surface Forces
Apparatus, M. Kasuya, D. Kubota, S. Fujii and K. Kurihara, Faraday Discussion, 233, 206‐
221 (2022).

2.

Evaluation of Interfacial pH Using Surface Forces Apparatus Fluorescence Spectroscopy, M.
Kasuya, Y, Sano, M. Kawashima, and K. Kurihara, Langmuir, 37(16), 5073-5080 (2021).

3.

Ice premelting layer of ice–rubber friction studied using resonance shear measurement, F.
Lecadre, M. Kasuya, S. Hemette, A. Harano, Y. Kanno, K. Kurihara, Soft Matter, 16(39), 86775

8682 (2020).
4.

Ice Premelting Layer Studied by Resonance Shear Measurement (RSM), F. Lecadre, M.
Kasuya, Y. Kanno, K. Kurihara, Langmuir, 35(48), 15729-15733 (2019).

5.

Dynamics of lubricious, concentrated PMMA brush layers studied by surface forces andresonance shear measurements, M. Mizukami, M. Gen,

S. -Y. Hsu, Y. Tsujii and K. Kurihara,

Soft Matter, 15(39), 7765-7776 (2019).
6.

Engineering the Anchoring Behavior of Nematic Liquid Crystals on a Solid Surface by Varying
the Density of Liquid Crystalline Polymer Brushes, X. Li, T. Yanagimachi, C. Bishop, C. Smith,
M. Dolejsi, H. Xie, K. Kurihara, P. F. Nealey, Soft Matter, 14, 7569-7577 (2018).

7.

Low-Temperature Surface Forces Apparatus to Determine the Interactions between Ice andSilica Surfaces, F. Lecadre，M. Kasuya，A. Harano，Y. Kanno and K. Kurihara, Langmuir,
34(38), 11311-11315 (2018).

8.

X-Ray Diffraction and Resonance Shear Measurement on Nano-Confined Ionic Liquids, K.
Tomita, M. Mizukami, S. Nakano, N. Ohta, N. Yagi, K. Kurihara, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.,
20, 13714-13721 (2018).

9.

Characterization of Platinum Electrode Surfaces by Electrochemical Surface Forces
Measurement, S. Fujii, M. Kasuya, K. Kurihara, J. Phys. Chem. C, 121, 26406–26413 (2017).

10. Preparation of Stable Silica Surfaces for Surface Forces Measurement, H.-Y. Ren, M.
Mizukami, K. Kurihara, Rev. Sci. Instrum., 88(9), 095198 (2017).
11. Nanotribological Characterization of Lubricants between Smooth Iron Surfaces, M. Kasuya, K.
Tomita, M. Hino, M. Mizukami, H. Mori, S. Kajita, T. Ohmori, A. Suzuki, K. Kurihara, Langmuir,
33(16), 3941–3948 (2017).
12. Anion Adsorption on Gold Electrodes Studied by Electrochemical Surface Forces
Measurement, M. Kasuya, T. Sogawa, T. Masuda, T. Kamijo, K. Uosaki, K. Kurihara, J. Phys.
Chem. C, 120, 15986–15992 (2016).
13. Lubrication Properties of Ammonium-Based Ionic Liquids Confined between Silica Surfaces
Using Resonance Shear Measurements, T. Kamijo, H. Arafune, T. Morinaga, S. Honma, T.
Sato, M. Hino, M. Mizukami and K. Kurihara, Langmuir, 31(49), 13265-13270 (2015).
14. Friction of polymer hydrogels studied by resonance shear measurements, H.-Y. Ren, M.
Mizukami, T. Tanabe, H. Furukawa and K. Kurihara, Soft Matter, 11, 6192-6200 (2015).
15. Structural stability and polarisation of ionic liquid films on silica surfaces, F. F. Canova, M.
Mizukami, T. Imamura, K. Kuriharaa and A. L. Shluger, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys, 17, 1766117669 (2015).
16. Resonance Shear Measurement of Confined Alkylphenyl Ether Lubricants, Junichi Watanabe,
Masashi Mizukami, Kazue Kurihara, Tribol. Lett., 56 501-508 (2014)
17. Caharcterization of Ferrocene Modified Electrode by Electrochemical Surface Forces
Measurement”, M. Kasuya and K. Kurihara, Langmuir, 30(24) 7093-7097 (2014).
18. Shear Dynamics of Nanoconfined Ionic Liquids, F. Federici Canova, H. Matsubara, M.
Mizukami, K. Kurihara and A. L. Shluger, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 16, 8247-8256 (2014)6

19. Effect of Confinement on Electric Field Induced Orientation of Nematic Liquid Crystal, S.
Nakano, M. Mizukami and K. Kurihara, Soft Matter, 10(13), 2110-2115, (2014)
20. Characterization of Water Confined between Silica Surfaces Using the Resonance Shear
Measurement, M. Kasuya, M. Hino, H. Yamada, M. Mizukami, H. Mori, S. Kajita, T. Ohmori, A.
Suzuki and K. Kurihara, J. Phys. Chem. C, 117 (26), 13540–13546 (2013)
21. Mechanism of Diffusion Slowdown in Confined Liquids, H. Matsubara, F. Pichierri, and K.
Kurihara, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 197801 (2012)
22. Structuring of Interfacial Water on Silica Surface in Cyclohexane Studied by Surface Forces
Measurement and Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy1, Masashi Mizukami,
Atsushi Kobayashi, and Kazue Kurihara, Langmuir, 28(40) 14284-14290 (2012)
23. Evaluation of pH of Water between Solid Surfaces Using Surface Forces Apparatus
Fluorescence Spectroscopy, Yuko Saito, Motohiro Kasuya, and Kazue Kurihara, Chem. Lett.,
41 1282-1284 (2012)
24. Fluorescent Dye Probe for Monitoring Local Viscosity of Confined Liquids, D. Fukushi, M.
Kasuya, H. Sakuma, and K. Kurihara, Chem. Lett., 40(7), 776-778 (2011).
25. Direct Observation of Double Layer Interactions between the Potential-controlled Gold
Electrode Surfaces Using the Electrochemical Surface Forces Apparatus, T. Kamijo, M.
Kasuya, M. Mizukami, and K. Kurihara, Chem. Lett., 40(7), 674-675 (2011).
26. Resonance Shear Measurement of Nanoconfined Ionic Liquids, K. Ueno, M. Kasuya, M.
Watanabe, M. Mizukami and K. Kurihara, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 12, 4066-4071 (2010).
27. Nanorheology and Nanotribology of Two-Component Liquid Crystal, H. Mizuno, T. Haraszti, M.
Mizukami and K. Kurihara, SAE Int. J. Fuels Lubr. 1, 1517-1523 (2009).
<The most outstanding SAE Technical Papers of 2008>
28. In-Situ

PolymerizationofMolecular

Macroclusters

on

SilicaSurface:

Poly

(N-

isopropylacrylamide) Nano-Films, M. Mizukami, G. Zhong, L. Zhang, I. Fukuchi and Kazue
Kurihara, Langmuir, 24, 12364-12368 (2008).
29. New Surface Forces Apparatus Using Two-Beam Interferometry, H. Kawai, H. Sakuma, M.
Mizukami, T. Abe, Y. Fukao, H. Tajima and K. Kurihara, Rev. Sci. Instrum., 79, 0437011~043701-5 (2008).
30. Nano-rheology of Dioctylphthalate Confined between Surfaces Coated with Long Alkyl Chains,
Y. Kayano, H. Sakuma and K. Kurihara, Langmuir, 23, 8365-8370 (2007).
31. Molecular Macrocluster Formation on Silica Surface in Phenol-Cyclohexane Mixture, N. Yilmaz,
M. Mizukami and K. Kurihara, Langmuir, 23, 6070-6075 (2007).
32. Direct Observation of Substrate-Enzyme Complexation by Surface Force Measurement, T.
Suzuki, Y.-W. Zhang, T. Koyama, D. Y. Sasaki and K. Kurihara, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 128, 1520915214 (2006).
33. Viscosity and Lubricity of Aqueous NaCl Solution Confined Between Mica Surfaces Studied by
Shear Resonance Measurement, H. Sakuma, K. Otsuki, and K. Kurihara, Phys. Rev. Lett., 96,
046104 (2006).
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34. Surface Induced Hydrogen-Bonded Macrocluster Formation of Methanol on Silica Surfaces,
M. Mizukami, Y. Nakagawa and K. Kurihara, Langmuir, 21, 9402-9405 (2005).
35. Preparation of Nano-films by In-situ Polymerization of Hydrogen-bonded Macroclusters of Nisopropylacrylamide on Silica Surfaces, G. Zhong, M. Mizukami, I. Fukuchi, T. Miyahara andK. Kurihara, Chem. Lett., 34, 228-229 (2005).
36. Hydrogen-Bonded Macrocluster Formation of 1-Propanol and 2-Propanol on Silica Surfaces,
M. Mizukami and K. Kurihara, Aust. J. Chem. 56, 1071-1080 (2003).
37. Hydrogen-Bonded Macrocluster Formation of Ethanol on Silica Surfaces in Cyclohexane, M.
Mizukami, M. Moteki and K. Kurihara, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 124, 12889-12897 (2002).
38. Polyelectrolyte Brush Layers Studied by Surface Forces Measurement: Dependence on pH
and Salt Concentrations and Scaling, S. Hayashi, T. Abe, N. Higashi, M. Niwa and K. Kurihara,
Langmuir, 18, 3932-3944 (2002).
39. Hydrogen-bonded Surface Macroclusters of Carboxylic Acid on Silica in Cyclohexane, K.
Kurihara and M. Mizukami, Proc. Japan Acad., 77, Ser. B, 115-120 (2001).
40. Density-Dependent Jump in Compressibility of Polyelectrolyte Brush Layers Revealed by
Surface Forces Measurement, T. Abe, N. Higashi, M. Niwa, and K. Kurihara, Langmuir, 15,7725-7731 (1999).
41. Nanotribology of Thin Liquid-Crystal Films Studied by the Shear Force Resonance Method, C.
D. Dushkin and K. Kurihara, Colloids Surf., A, 129/130, 131-139 (1997).
42. Direct Demonstration of Attraction for a Complementary Pair of Apposed Nucleic Acid Base
Monolayers, K. Kurihara, T. Abe and N. Nakashima, Langmuir, 12(17), 4053-4056 (1996).
43. Direct Measurement of Surface Forces between Monolayers of Anchored Poly(L-glutamicacid), T. Abe, K. Kurihara, N. Higashi, M. Niwa, J. Phys. Chem., 99, 1820-1823 (1995)..
44. Submicron Range of Attraction between Hydrophobic Surfaces of Monolayer-Modified Mica in
Water, K. Kurihara and T. Kunitake, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 114, 10927-10933 (1992).
45. Adsorption of Poly(styrenesulfonate) onto an Ammonium Monolayer on Mica: A Surface ForceStudy, P. Berndt, K. Kurihara and T. Kunitake, Langmuir, 8, 2486-2490 (1992).
46. Surface Forces between Monolayers of Anchored Poly(methacrylic acid), K. Kurihara , T.
Kunitake, N. Higashi and M. Niwa, Langmuir, 8, 2087-2089 (1992).
47. Very Strong Long Range Attractive Forces between Stable Hydrophobic Monolayers of a
Polymerized Ammonium Surfactant, K. Kurihara, S. Kato and T. Kunitake, Chem. Lett., 15551558 (1990).

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