RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science Advanced Catalysis Research Group
Group Director: Zhaomin Hou (D.Eng.)
Research Summary

Our group aims to develop new generations of catalysts, which are complementary or superior to the existing ones, for applications in efficient utilization of untapped resources and the synthesis of fine chemicals and functional polymer materials. Particular interests are directed to: (1) activation and utilization of N2 for the synthesis of ammonia and nitrogen-containing organic compounds under mild conditions, (2) utilization of CO2 as a chemical feedstock for the synthesis of high-value added fine chemicals, and (3) synthesis of high-performance polymer materials by selective copolymerization of commodity monomers having different properties.
Main Research Fields
- Chemistry
Related Research Fields
- Environmental Science
- Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering
- Medicine, Dentistry & Pharmacy
- Organic chemistry
- Synthetic chemistry
- Polymer chemistry
Keywords
- Olefin Polymerization
- C-H Bond Functionalization
- Dinitrogen Activation
- Transformation of Carbon Dioxide to Useful Chemicals
- Asymmetric Catalysis
Selected Publications
- 1.Wang, C., Luo, G., Nishiura, M., Song, G., Yamamoto, A., Luo, Y., and Hou, Z.:
"Heteroatom-assisted Olefin Polymerization by Rare-Earth Metal Catalysts"
Sci. Adv. 3, e1701011 (2017). - 2.Wang, B., Luo, G., Nishiura, M., Hu, S., Shima, T., Luo, Y., and Hou, Z.:
"Dinitrogen Activation by Dihydrogen and a PNP-Ligated Titanium Complex"
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 139, 1818-1821 (2017). - 3.Teng, H., Luo, Y., Wang, B., Zhang, L., Nishiura, M., and Hou, Z.:
"Synthesis of Chiral Aminocyclopropanes by Rare-Earth-Metal-Catalyzed Cyclopropene Hydroamination"
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 55, 15406-15410 (2016). - 4.Carry, B., Zhang, L., Nishiura, M., and Hou, Z.:
"Synthesis of Lithium Boracarbonate Ion Pairs by Copper-Catalyzed Multi-Component Coupling of Carbon Dioxide, Diboron, and Aldehydes"
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 55, 6257-6260 (2016). - 5.Guru, M. M., Shima, T., and Hou, Z.:
"Conversion of Dinitrogen to Nitriles at a Multinuclear Titanium Framework"
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 55, 12316-12320 (2016). - 6.Shi, X., Nishiura, M., and Hou, Z.:
"C−H Polyaddition of Dimethoxyarenes to Unconjugated Dienes by Rare Earth Catalysts"
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 138, 6147-6150 (2016). - 7.Nishiura, M., Guo, F., and Hou, Z.:
"Half-Sandwich Rare-Earth-Catalyzed Olefin Polymerization, Carbometalation, and Hydroarylation"
Acc. Chem. Res. 48, 2209-2220 (2015). - 8.Song, G., O, W. W. N., and Hou, Z.:
"Enantioselective C−H Bond Addition of Pyridines to Alkenes Catalyzed by Chiral Half-Sandwich Rare-Earth Complexes"
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 136, 12209−12212 (2014). - 9.Hu, S., Shima, T., and Hou, Z.:
"Carbon-Carbon Bond Cleavage and Rearrangement of Benzene by a Trinuclear Titanium Hydride"
Nature 512, 413-415 (2014). - 10.Shima, T., Hu, S., Luo, G., Kang, X., Luo, Y., and Hou, Z.:
"Dinitrogen Cleavage and Hydrogenation by a Trinuclear Titanium Polyhydride Complex"
Science, 340, 1549-1552 (2013).
Recent Research Results
Sep. 29, 2017
Polarized polymer becomes a team playerJan. 27, 2017
A both/and approach to creating polymersJun. 17, 2016
Harnessing greenhouse gas for batteriesMay 13, 2016
Catalysis gets a metal-free upgradeOct. 24, 2014
Breaking bonds in benzeneAug. 28, 2014
Breaking benzene
Related Links
Lab Members
Principal investigator
- Zhaomin Hou
- Group Director
Core members
- Satoshi Kamiguchi
- Senior Research Scientist
- Masayoshi Nishiura
- Senior Research Scientist
- Takanori Shima
- Senior Research Scientist
- Masanori Takimoto
- Senior Research Scientist
- Liang Zhang
- Senior Research Scientist
- Shaowei Hu
- Special Postdoctoral Researcher
- Chunxiang Wang
- Special Postdoctoral Researcher
- Ching Tat To
- Foreign Postdoctoral Researcher
- Huailong Teng
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Gen Luo
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Haobing Wang
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Can Xue
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Shaojie Lou
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Yusuke Saito
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Zhenghua Li
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Yang Yang
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Hisashi Soga
- Technical Staff II
Contact Information
S608 Chemistry and Materials Physics Building
2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
Email: houz [at] riken.jp