192018

June 2018
Issue #19

CONTENTS
Integrated Research Consortium on
Chemical Sciences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2Core-to-Core Program
The 21st Joint Symposium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4

Research Topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6Integrative Graduate Education and Research
Program in Green Natural Sciences . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8Visiting Professor 2017 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9Report on the Chemical Instrumentation
Facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
RCMS Seminars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Chemistry Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Awards 2017 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Staff List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

This newsletter is also available in PDF format from the RCMS homepage (ihttp://www.rcms.nagoya-u.ac.jp/).

RCMS NEWS

Integrated Research Consortium on Chemical Sciences
2017
In 2017, IRCCS, Integrated Research Consortium on Chemical Sciences, a pioneering synthesis of a new scientificbase and nurturing the next generation of researchers (Hokkaido University Institute for Catalysis, Nagoya University
Research Center for Materials Science, Kyoto University International Research Center for Elements Science Institutefor Chemical Research, Kyushu University Institute for Materials Chemistry and Engineering) held the symposium
below.

The 1st Young Researchers Forum(Inuyama city, Aichi, July 28–29, 2017)

Prof. Awaga, Observer
Asst. Prof. Naka, organizer,
Nagoya UniversityRound-table discussion

Breakfast

Group photo2

Inuyama castle

The 3rd Symposium(Kyoto University, October 30–31, 2017)＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

Poster session

Asst. Prof. Omachi, Nagoya

Group photo

The 1st International Symposium(Kyushu University, January 24–26, 2018)＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

Chair, Prof. Yamaguchi

Director of IRCCS, Prof. Tatsumi

Asst. Prof. Ogi, Nagoya

Poster3

RCMS NEWS

Core-to-Core Program
The 21st Joint Symposium
As part of the Core-to-Core Program “Strategic Research Networks (Type A)” operated by the Japan Society
for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), the program “Elements Function for Transformative Catalysis and Materials”
is promoted by the Research Center fo Materials Science and the Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of
Science at Nagoya University, with Professor Shigehiro Yamaguchi serving as Project Coordinator. In this program,joint research and dispatch of researchers is actively performed with the participating institutions at the University of
Munster (Germany), the Technical University of Berlin (Germany), Queen’s University (Canada), and Kyoto University(Japan).
The Core-to-Core Program has enabled the deployment of master’s students, and outstanding young researchers expected to perform globally in the future can now be refined through participation in international joint
research performed overseas at an early stage.
The 2017 academic year featured the 21st Joint Symposium when counting from the Japanese-German Graduate
Externship program. The symposium was held at University of Muenster.

The 21st Joint Seminar
February 2 (Fri.), 2018; held at University of Münster, Germany
Participants from Japan: 8 professors, 6 students

Prof. Studer, Muenster

Prof. Yamaguchi, Nagoya
Chair, Muenster student

4Prof. Crudden, Queen’s5RCMS NEWSResearch Topic(Inorganic Synthesis)

Synthesis of a Supramolecular Cage Inspired by
Induced-Fit-Type Molecular Recognition of Enzymes
Enzymes are the proteins that catalyze various biological reactions in living systems. It is well known thatenzymes achieve highly efficient and substrate-specificcatalytic reactions by utilizing their sophisticated molecular recognition abilities. There are two main models
proposed to explain their molecular recognition abilities,
namely “lock and key” and “induced-fit” models. In the“lock and key” model, the shape of the active site of the
enzyme is considered to be perfectly complementary to
the shape of the substrate, whereas in the “induced-fit”
model, bindings of a substrate induce the change in the
shape of the active site so that it become suitable for themolecular recognition. It is apparent that induced-fit
model requires the structural flexibility as well as thehuge protein structure as prerequisites.
Inspired by the induced-fit-type molecular recognition of enzymes, we recently developed a novel supramolecular cage, which is capable of recognizing various
substrates strongly by changing its own structure to besuitable for the molecular recognition. In general, it isdifficult to design a molecular cage having both of theabilities to change its own structure flexibly and to bindstrongly to a substrate. In the case when the structure of
the molecular cage is rigid enough as in the case withthe “lock and key” model, the molecular cage can recognize its complementary substrate strongly. However,
the more the structure of the cage becomes flexible, thecage-substrate complex becomes thermodynamicallyless stable because its structure is easy to be distorted.
To overcome this difficulty, we utilized the “rotaxane”, a well-known supramolecular structure, in whicha ring molecule is threaded by a thread molecule. The
structure of the supramoelcular cage 1 is shown in Fig.
1. 1 is a multiply interlocked molecular assembly inwhich a phthalocyanine bearing four peripheral crownethers are quadruply interlocked with a porphyrin
dimer bridged quadruply with flexible alkylammo-nium chains. As a result, 1 has
two nanospaces in between aphthalocyanine unit and theedge porphyrins. Furthermore,
the phthalocynine unit canslide along the alkylammonium
sidechains of the porphyrin
dimer like a slide-door because
they are connected each othervia rotaxane structure. Actually, we confirmed that 1 could encapsulate a molecule
whose size is larger than that of the accesses to the innernanospaces of 1. It was also found that 1 showed uniquemolecular recognition processes. During the recognitionof 2 (Fig. 2(a)), two 2 was found to bind one by one ineach nanospace of 1. This implies that the affinity of thefirst binding is much larger than the second binding. We
suppose that this molecular recognition might be dueto that 1 could undergo the slide door-type structuraltransformation as described in Fig. 2(b).

Fig. 2. (a) Structure of a guest molecule 2 and (b) a schematic representation of the encapsulation process of 2 by 1.

Fig. 1. Structure of a supramolecular cage 1.

6Reference[1] Y. Yamada, R. Itoh, S. Ogino, T. Kato, K. Tanaka, Angew.
Chem. Int. Ed., 2017, 56, 14124-14129.
(Yasuyuki Yamada)Research Topic(Molecular Catalysis)

Conversion of Water for Organic Synthesis
The title statement may sound strange, especially to

we have recently developed theexperts in organic chemistry, because water is a popular

photocatalytic dehydrogenation“enemy” in organic synthesis. In standard organic synthesis,of primary alcohols to aldehydes

chemists usually remove water from their flasks completely,(Figure 2).[3] Noteworthy in thisin order to avoid any type of undesirable side-reactionstransformation is the unusual se-caused by water. However, Nature often produces numer-

lectivity for C–O bond cleavage

ous kinds of organic products by using water as a starting

over C=C double bond reduction

material. For example, cells in your body rapidly produce

under the photo-redox-conditions.

organic materials by using water and enzymes underaqueous conditions for keeping your life sustainable;plants produce carbohydrates and dioxygen from waterand carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. Inspired by
the above-mentioned splendid activities in Nature, we set
our research focus to develop new methods for organic

Figure 1. Cobalt-catalyzed hydroalkoxylation of alkynes

synthesis using water as a starting material.
Catalytic Hydration of Organic Compounds
Catalytic hydration of organic compounds is a

Figure 2. Photocatalytic dehydrogenation of alcohols

fundamental reaction both in the academic chemistry andindustrial chemical production. We have recently disclosedthat a fluorinated cobalt(III) porphyrin complex effectively

References

promotes the hydroalkoxylation of terminal alkynes to[1] ‌R. Ushimaru, T. Nishimura, T. Iwatsuki, H. Naka,

give acetals (Figure 1).[1] Because the acetals are very easily

A Fluorinated Cobalt(III) Porphyrin Complex forhydrolyzed to ketones, this transformation can be regarded

Hydroalkoxylation of Alkynes. Chem. Pharm. Bull. 65,

as the formal hydration of alkynes to ketones. The current

1000–1003 (2017).

method was found to be more efficient than our previous
method for the hydration of terminal alkynes.[2][2] T. Tachinami, T. Nishimura, R. Ushimaru, R. Noyori,
H. Naka, Hydration of Terminal Alkynes Catalyzed
by Water-Soluble Cobalt Porphyrin Complexes. J.

Organic Synthesis with Light Energy

Am. Chem. Soc. 135, 50−53 (2013).

Chemical synthesis using sunlight energy is a dream of[3] M. Shibata, R. Nagata, S. Saito, H. Naka, Dehydro-

the whole human beings. Photochemical transformation ofgenation of Primary Aliphatic Alcohols by Au/TiO2

biomass-derived or renewable substances using water as a

Photocatalysts. Chem. Lett. 46, 580–582 (2017).

hydrogen source is an important challenge for promoting(Hiroshi Naka)

green and sustainable chemistry. Aiming at establishinga new scientific basis for such artificial photosynthesis,

7

RCMS NEWS

Integrative Graduate Education and Research Programin Green Natural Sciences (IGER)
Integrative Graduate Education and Research (IGER) Program in Green Natural Sciences was launched in 2011,and built on three pillars: (I) practicing cutting-edge fundamental natural science research, (II) completion of sufficient coursework to enable that research, and (III) graduate school literacy education (English training, studying
abroad, skill seminars, etc.). Based on these, the program aims to nurture the “scientific ability and social skills to view
situations from a broad perspective,”“developmental ability to extract practical results from fundamental research,”and “active international citizenship on a global scale,” along with fostering “corporate researchers cultivated as seeds
in industry,” “academic researchers raised in the scholarly domain,” and “environmental coordinators and mentors
active throughout global society” that will carry the environmental fields of the next generation.
In FY2017, the program provided opportunity for 60 students to participate in international conferences heldat outside Japan, and also provided opportunity of mid-term (2–3 months) overseas research exchange for 14
students. Furthermore, the program hosted various international symposium / workshop where lots of students
could have opportunities to discuss with foreign researchers.
Eleven students participated in the Leadership Program at North Carolina (NC), US. All students not only attended lectures regarding Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer but also visited many laboratories
in universities at NC to build networks with PIs, postdocs and graduate students. In addition, all of them had
opportunities to do presentations on their research to these researchers and have discussions. Furthermore, they
visited some companies to learn some ideas of working in industry as a researcher and business environment in
the USA from entrepreneurs and researchers.

Group photo in International Conference

Farewell Party in the NC Program

8

Collaboration Research in University of Glasgow

Visiting Professor 2017
Prof. Michael P. Shaver
Professor,
The University of Edinburgh
Period of Stay:December 5, 2017 – January 26, 2018
Research Theme:
Synthesis of Functional Polymers

Prof. Michael P. Shaver from the University of Edinburgh, the United Kingdom, stayed as a visingprofessor in RCMS for two months since Dec. 5th, 2017, working on synthesis of functional polymers. He
is a rising star in the field of organic polymer chemistry, and is the youngest professor in Departmentof Chemistry, UoE. During his stay, we collaborated on application of finely-designed organic polymers
with specific structures to organic electronics.
In Nagoya University, he attended to the group meetings of the Saito and Awaga groups, andvisited many laboratories in Department of Chemistry, School of Science, giving valuable advices tostudents and young researchers. He was full of curiosity and had an interest in everything. He gave
an IGER-RCMS seminar, “New Monomers in Ring-opening and Radical Polymerisations for Sustainable
and Functional Polymers” on Dec. 8th. He also visited several laboratories in Department of Applied
Chemistry, School of Engineering, and gave a seminar there. His contribution to Nagoya University
was very significant in both research and education. He will be a key person for future collaboration
between NU and UoE.
Prof. Shaver, born in Canada, is a great beer lover, and has a deep knowledge on craft beer in theworld. He loves a Nagoya craft beer, which is not well known among us. He visited a craft beer bar in
Nagoya almost every weekend, and made many friends there. When he tried the NU beer in a banquet,
we received his strong admiration for its flavor.
With a lot of good memories in Japan, he returned to the UK on Jan. 27th, 2018.

9

RCMS NEWS

Report on the Chemical Instrumentation Facility
The Chemical Instrumentation Facility is a facility
shared by the whole university that contains instrumental analysis equipment including a nuclear magnetic
resonance (NMR) spectrometer, mass spectrometer, andspectroscopic analysis equipment for analyzing molecular structures. In the Chemical Instrumentation Facility,
services are provided to users including teaching faculty,
researchers, and students through maintenance of thesemeasurement instruments, lectures on measurement
methods, consultations for specific measurements,and entrusted measurement. In 2017, Prof. Susumu
Saito took the position of president of our facility. We
conducted the management and operation under his
direction in order to improve our services. During the2017 fiscal year, as shown in “CIF Utilization Status”, 74
research groups from the university registered to use thefacility, and the number of teaching faculty, students,

and researchers who registered to use the facility during
the year was 746.

NMR Room[CIF Utilization Status]
Utilization Status for the Academic Year 2017
(April 2017 – February 2018)

Number of Uses/Measurements by Instrument

DART-MS (JMS-T100TD, JEOL)

Circular Dichroism spectrometer (J-720, JASCO)

10

Utilization Status by Department(Total: 74 Groups, 746 People)

RCMS Seminars

April 12, 2017 Prof. Christoph A. Schalley(Freie Universität Berlin)“Systems Chemistry: From Logic Gates based on
Supramolecular Gels to Supramolecular Polymer
Transporters”

April 12, 2017 Prof. Patrick G. Harran(D.J. & J.M. Cram Chair in Organic Chemistry, UCLA, USA)
“Tactics and Strategy in Complex Molecule Synthesis”

April 18, 2017 Prof. Yves LE MEST(CNRS, Université de Brest)“Cu(II)/Cu(I) electron transfer coupled to dioxygen activationin biomimetic complexes: from solution to calix-zymes
grafted on an electrode”

May 17, 2017 Prof. George SHIMIZU(Department of Chemistry, University of Calgary, Canada)“CO2 Capture and Proton Conduction in Metal Organic Frameworks”

11RCMS NEWSMay 22, 2017 Prof. Clark R. Landis(Helfaer Professor, Chemistry University of
Wisconsin-Madison)“Operando methods for studying homogeneous catalysts”

June 12, 2017 Prof. Mario Ruben(Karlsruher Institute of Technology)“Surface-confined Coordination Chemistry: Convergent vsDivergent Features”

June 28, 2017 Prof. Atsuhiro Osuka(Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University)

July 7, 2017 Prof. Junichiro Kono
(Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, USA)
“Optics and Photonics of Macroscopically Aligned Carbon
Nanotubes”

12July 11, 2017 Prof. Yuh-Lin Wang
(IAMS, Distinguished Research Fellow, Taiwan)“Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) for
Rapid Antibiotic Susceptibility Test of Bacteria from Sepsis
Patients”

July 18, 2017 Prof. John Arnold(Department of Chemistry, UC Berkeley, USA)
“New Reactivity in Actinide Chemistry Facilitated by
Supporting Ligand Design”

July 19, 2017 Prof. Reza A. Ghiladi(North Carolina State University)“The Role of Porphyrins in Biology: From Protein
Biochemistry to Antimicrobial Materials”

13RCMS NEWS

September 28, 2017 Pham Nguyen Thanh Vinh
(Lecturer, Department of Physics, HCMC University ofPedagogy)“Photoelectron momentum distribution induced bycircularly polarized laser field”

September 29, 2017 Prof. Yannick HOARAU(Strasbourg University)“Numerical fluid mechanics research in Icube laboratory”

October 2, 2017 Prof. Jihong Yu(Jilin University)“Construction and Application of Zeolitic Nanoporous
Materials”

14

October 11, 2017 Prof. Matthias Wagner(Institute for Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry,
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)“The Advance of Organoboranes From Useful Little Helpers
to Key Compounds in Materials Science and Catalysis”

October 16, 2017 Prof. Todd Hudnall(Dept. Chemistry and Biochemistry, Texas State University)“Electrophilic Carbenes: Tales of Main Group Chemistry,
Radicals, and Photochemistry”

November 6, 2017 Prof. Sreebrata Goswami(Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science)“Chemical Reactivity of Metal Coordinated Azo-Aromatics:
Present and Future”

15

RCMS NEWS

November 9, 2017 Associate Prof. Jiro Itatani(Laser and Syncrotron Research Center (LASOR)
The Institute for Solid State Physics (ISSP), the University ofTokyo)

November 14, 2017 Prof. Michael T. Green(University of California, Irvine)“Selenocysteine-Ligated Cytochrome P450 Compound I :A Direct Link Between Electron Donation and Reactivity”

December 8, 2017 Prof. Michael P. Shaver(University of Edinburgh)“New Monomers in Ring-opening and Radical
Polymerisations for Sustainable and Functional Polymers”

16February 7, 2018 Prof. Hiroshi Kitagawa(Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University)

March 14, 2018 Prof. Dr. Peter R. Schreiner(Institute of Organic Chemistry, Justus Liebig University
Giessen, Giessen, Germany)“Nanodiamondoids as the Next Generation Carbon
Materials”

March 15, 2018 Dr. John C. Gordon(Scientist 5, AAAS Fellow, Los Alamos National Laboratory,
USA)“Some New Insights into the Efficient Outer Sphere
Hydrogenation of Carbonyl Containing Substrates”

17

RCMS NEWSChemistry Gallery
The Chemistry Gallery (2nd Floor of the Noyori Materials Science Laboratory) welcomed many visitors again
in the 2017 academic year.
13,089 people visited the gallery as of March 31, 2018 (according to an automatic counter for entry/exit to
the gallery).
A particularly large number of visitors were welcomed during the following periods when Nagoya University
was open to the public.
   Number of visitors during Open Campus : 816 (August 8 to 10)   Number of visitors on Homecoming Day : 510 (October 21)
At the Chemistry Gallery, guest can experience Dr. Noyori’s sincere commitment, philosophy and passion thatearned him the Nobel Prize, the gratest honor for a scientist. There is also a message to the next generation fromDr. Noyori. Symbolical words from Dr. Noyori’s research handing down the profound mystery of Chemistry and theattitude of a genuine scientist of future chemists.

18

Awards 2017

Asst. Prof. Shinji Tanaka (The second from the right)
Incentive Award in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan
February 15, 2018

Prof. Mizuki Tada
“The Kao Prize for Science 2016”
The Kao Foundation for Arts and Sciences
June 16, 2017

S. Ozawa, H. Matsui, M. Tada, et al. PCCP Poster Prize NENCS-RSC
October 28, 2017

Y. Tan, H. Matsui, M. Tada et al. Energy & Environmental Science
poster Prize NECS-RSC
October 28, 2017

Prof. Mizuki Tada

19

RCMS NEWS

Staff List
Director

Professor(2291)

yamaguchi@mbox.chem.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Special Advisor

University Professor Ryoji Noyori(2291)

yamaguchi@mbox.chem.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Assistant Professor Soichiro Ogi(5750)

ogi.soichiro@chem.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Assistant Professor Akiko Yagi

(5873)

yagi.akiko@d.mbox.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Professor

Mizuki Tada

(6200)

mtada@chem.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Associate Professor Hideo Takagi(5473)

htakagi@chem.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Associate Professor Yasuyuki Yamada(2471)

yy@chem.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Designated Professor Kazuyuki Tatsumi(2474)

i45100a@nucc.cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Professor(2494)

hishi@chem.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Assistant Professor Zhang Zhongyue(5106)

zhangzhongyue@i.mbox.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Assistant Professor Haruka Omachi(3660)

omachi.haruka@a.mbox.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Biomaterials
Research

Professor(3049)

p47297a@nucc.cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Assistant Professor Fumiaki Tomoike(2950)

tomoike@chem.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Molecular
Catalysis

University Professor Ryoji Noyori(2956)

noyori@chem3.chem.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Assistant Professor Hiroshi Naka

(5411)

h_naka@nagoya-u.jp

Assistant Professor Shinji Tanaka(2960)

tanaka@os.rcms.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Organic Synthesis Professor

Inorganic
Synthesis

Functional
Materials

Shigehiro Yamaguchi

Shigehiro Yamaguchi

Akiyoshi Hishikawa

Yoshihito Watanabe

Collaborative
Studies

Guest Professor

Hiroshi Kitagawa (Professor, Kyoto University)

Guest Professor

Michael Patrick Shaver (Professor, University of Edinburgh)

ChemicalInstrumentation
Facility

Manager / Professor Susumu Saito(5945)

saito.susumu@f.mbox.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Assistant Professor Chunguang Han(3072)

hanc@cic.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Technical official

Yutaka Maeda(3069)

maeda@cic.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Technical official

Kin-ichi Oyama(3069)

oyama@cic.nagoya-u.ac.jp

International Advisory Board

Michael Grunze (Professor Emeritus, Heidelberg University)
Roald Hoffman (Professor Emeritus, Cornell University – Laureate, Nobel Prize in Chemistry)
Henri Boris Kagan (Professor Emeritus, Paris-Sud 11 University)
Atsuko Tsuji (Designated Professor, Nagoya University)

Cooperating
Faculty

RCMS Office20

Professor

Hisanori Shinohara (Graduate School of Science) (2482)

noris@nagoya-u.jp

Professor

Kenichiro Itami (Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules) (6098)

itami.kenichiro@a.mbox.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Professor

Masato Kitamura (Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences) (2957)

kitamura@os.rcms.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Professor

Susumu Saito (Graduate School of Science) (5945)

saito.susumu@f.mbox.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Distinguished Invited
Sumio Iijima
University Professor(6460)

iijimas@nagoya-u.jp

Administrative Staff Yuko Kihara(5907)

kihara@os.rcms.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Administrative Staff Chiaki Yamamoto(5902)

yamamoto@os.rcms.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Administrative Staff Sonoe Tankiku(5908)

tankiku@os.rcms.nagoya-u.ac.jp