New Faculty Members

New Faculty Members at CRCMS

Related Area: Soft Matter and Biomaterial Area ZHANG Yizhou, PhD
Associate Professor, AIMR(CRCMS)

From self-assembled soft materials to nanostructured templates: tunable functional device

Introduction of young independent faculty members

MESSAGE

From self-assembled soft materials to nanostructured templates

Our research explores the relationship between chemistry, dynamics, and the structure of self-assembled polymeric materials, aiming to leverage this understanding in designing multifunctional templates for their tailored environmental and energy utilities. The research extends to chemical sensing using colorimetric, fluorescent, and plasmonic methods.

Recent Research Findings

The work at Tohoku University has involved preparing porous polymeric devices with feature sizes ranging from a few angstroms to tens of nanometers. By integrating our knowledge in the fields of chemical engineering, materials science, and chemistry, we aim to leverage our work in developing a novel nanoporous platform for mediating mass transfers in fuel cells, chemical separation, and metal-ion battery applications. For example, the preparation of a direct hexagonal mesophase (HI) provides a cross-linked network with a tunable limiting dimension of ~1.0 nm associated with the space between the nearest-neighbor cylinders. We synthesize the precursor molecule and process the mesophase in an ultra-thin film. Compared with other reported nanochannel systems where water channel alignment is required, the transport can take place in the three-dimensional water-continuous network, making it more efficient as a nanofiltration membrane.

Publications

ACS Macro Lett. 2017, 6, 726-732.

Sci. Adv. 2022, 8, eabm5899.

Structural Materials Wing

Related Area: Soft Matter and Biomaterial Area
ZHANG Yizhou, PhD
Associate Professor, AIMR(CRCMS)
Tohoku Univ researchers 　researchmap
zhang.yizhou.e4[at]tohoku.ac.jp
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