"Aqua Materials" Takuzo Aida

Nanoparticles by Design Unit (Sowwan Unit) would like to announce a seminar by Prof. Aida, Takuzo, The University of Tokyo.

Speaker: Distinguished Prof. Aida, Tokuzo, Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, School of Engineering, The Univerisity of Tokyo

Title: Aqua Materials

Abstract:

Water is essential for life on earth and considered a symbol of purity.  71% of the surface of our planet is covered by water, and our own body is composed of 65% of this simple but vital molecule.  Considering increasing environmental issues, the idea of replacing plastics with water-based materials, so-called hydrogels, seems quite reasonable.  Here we report that water and clay (2–3%), upon mixing with very minute amounts of organic components (< 0.4%), quickly form a transparent hydrogel (1).  This material can be molded into shape-persistent freestanding objects owing to its exceptionally high mechanical strength, and instantaneously self-heals completely when destroyed.  Furthermore, it preserves biologically active proteins for catalysis. Prior to our discovery, no hydrogels, including conventional ones formed by mixing polymeric cations and anions or polysaccharides and borax, have been reported to possess all these exceptional features.  Noteworthy, this material is formed only by non-covalent forces resulting from the specific design of telechelic dendritic macromolecules with multiple adhesive termini for binding onto clay.  In collaboration with Hawker and coworkers, linear versions of dendritic molecular binders were developed, which are quite efficient for the preparation of aqua materials (2).  Furthermore, we also found that utilization of other sheet-shaped inorganic components provides aqua materials with very interesting functions (3–5).

References:

(1) Wang et al., Nature 2010, 463, 339–343.  

(2) Tamesue et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 135, 15650−15655 (2013).

(3) Liu et al., Nat. Commun. 4, 2029-1–7 (2013).