RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science Emergent Bioinspired Soft Matter Research Team
Team Leader: Yasuhiro Ishida (D.Eng.)
Research Summary

Our team aims to create water-based materials, referred to as aqua materials, as replacements for conventional plastics. Taking advantage of their unique properties as moldable, portable water, together with the elaboration of their inner or surface parts, we will demonstrate their various applications as intelligent soft materials. We are employing a wide range of chemicals as the components of aqua materials, in order to improve their properties and to ultimately realize environment-conscious materials. Our challenge also includes the rational design of novel bio-inspired materials, by assembling molecules with dynamic and static functions within aqua materials used as scaffolds.
Main Research Fields
- Chemistry
Keywords
- Self assembly
- Biomimetics
- Soft material
- Stimuli-responsive material
- Environmentally friendly material
Selected Publications
Papers with an asterisk(*) are based on research conducted outside of RIKEN.
- 1.Sano, K., Kim, Y. S., Ishida, Y., Ebina, Y., Sasaki, T., Hikima, T., and Aida, T.
"Photonic Water Dynamically Responsive to External Stimuli"
Nature Communications 2016, 7, 12559. - 2.Matsui, R., Ohtani, M., Yamada, K., Hikima, T., Takata, M., Nakamura, T., Koshino, H., Ishida, Y., and Aida, T.:
"Chemically Locked Bicelles with High Thermal and Kinetic Stability"
Angewandte Chemie International Edition 54, 13284–13288 (2015). - 3.Li, C., Cho, J., Yamada, K., Hashizume, D., Araoka, F., Takezoe, H., Aida, T., and Ishida, Y.:
"Macroscopic Ordering of Helical Pores for Arraying Guest Molecules Noncentrosymmetrically"
Nature Communications 2015, 6, 8418. - 4.Kim, Y. S., Liu, M., Ishida, Y., Ebina, Y., Osada, M., Sasaki, T., Hikima, T., Takata, M., and Aida, T.:
"Thermoresponsive Actuation Enabled by Permittivity Switching in an Electrostatically Anisotropic Hydrogel"
Nature Materials 14, 1002–1007 (2015). - 5.Liu, M., Ishida, Y., Ebina, Y., Sasaki, T., Hikima, T., Takata, M., and Aida, T.:
"An Anisotropic Hydrogel with Electrostatic Repulsion between Cofacially Aligned Nanosheets"
Nature 517, 68–74 (2015). - 6.Wu, L., Ohtani, M., Takata, M., Saeki, A., Seki, S., Ishida, Y., and Aida, T.:
"Magnetically Induced Anisotropic Orientation of Graphene Oxide Locked by in Situ Hydrogelation"
ACS Nano 8, 4640–4649 (2014). - 7.Tamesue, S., Ohtani, M., Yamada, K., Ishida, Y., Spruell, J. M., Lynd, N. A., Hawker, C. J., and Aida, T.:
"Linear versus Dendritic Molecular Binders for Hydrogel Network Formation with Clay Nanosheets: Studies with ABA Triblock Copolyethers Carrying Guanidinium Ion Pendants"
Journal of the American Chemical Society 135, 15650–15655 (2013). - 8.Liu, M., Ishida, Y., Ebina, Y., Sasaki, T., and Aida, T.:
"Photolatently Modulable Hydrogels using Unilamellar Titania Nanosheets as Photocatalytic Crosslinkers"
Nature Communications 4, 2029 (2013). - 9.Maggini, L., Liu, M., Ishida, Y., and Bonifagi, D.:
"Anisotropically Luminescent Hydrogels Containing Magnetically-aligned MWCNTs-Eu(III) Hybrids"
Advanced Materials 25, 2462–2467 (2013). - 10.Ishida, Y., Matsuoka, Y., Kai, Y., Yamada, K., Nakagawa, K., Asahi, T., and Saigo, K.:
"Metastable Liquid Crystal as Time-responsive Reaction Medium: Aging-induced Dual Enantioselective Control"
Journal of the American Chemical Society 135, 6407–6410 (2013).
Recent Research Results
Dec. 1, 2020
A shapeshifting material based on inorganic matterJan. 18, 2019
Photoreactions activate magnetic nanoswitchesDec. 2, 2016
Photonic water shows nanosheets’ true colorsDec. 18, 2015
Helical pores make perfect hostsDec. 4, 2015
Building better bilayersOct. 16, 2015
A hydrogel flexes its musclesMar. 6, 2015
Nanosheets line up to mimic natureDec. 30, 2014
A repulsive material
Related Links
Lab Members
Principal investigator
- Yasuhiro Ishida
- Team Leader
Core members
- Kuniyo Yamada
- Expert Technician
- Krishnachary Salikolimi
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Xiang Wang
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Koki Sano
- Special Postdoctoral Researcher
- Noriko Horimoto
- Technical Staff I
- Prathap Annamalai
- Visiting Researcher
- Yiyang Zhan
- Visiting Researcher
- Zhifang Sun
- Visiting Scientist
- Hayato Kanai
- Junior Research Associate
- Zhihao Li
- Student Trainee
- Shuxu Wang
- Student Trainee
- Jungho Lee
- Student Trainee
Contact Information
106, Frontier Material Research Facilities, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
Tel: +81-(0)48-462-1111
(ext. 6351)
Fax: +81-(0)48-467-8214
Email: y-ishida [at] riken.jp