Organometallic Chemistry Lab

AboutAbout the lab

Creating new catalysts as molecular creators.

The Organometallic Chemistry Lab studies groundbreaking chemical reactions that revolutionize synthetic organic chemistry, and the catalysts that make them possible.
Pharmaceuticals and functional organic materials come out of synthetic organic chemistry.
By combining organic chemistry, coordination chemistry, computer graphics, and quantum chemical calculations, the lab designs molecules with structures and functions that do not yet exist in the world.
It also searches for catalysts in domains beyond single molecules, such as chemically modified solid surfaces and molecular assemblies.

ResearchResearch themes

The lab discovers groundbreaking chemical reactions that revolutionize synthetic organic chemistry, and designs and develops the catalysts that make them possible. By combining organic chemistry and coordination chemistry with quantum chemical calculations and computer graphics, it creates molecules with new structures and new functions.

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Directly remodeling carbon–hydrogen bonds↗

If the carbon–hydrogen bonds found everywhere in organic molecules can be converted into other bonds at targeted positions, complex compounds can be obtained in few steps. Focusing on weak interactions between a catalyst and a substrate, the lab develops asymmetric synthesis methods that give only one of two chiral compounds that are mirror images of each other.

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Developing light-driven chemical reactions↗

Ordinary chemical reactions use heat as their energy source, but this lab takes on reactions powered by light. Light can supply energy larger than heat by orders of magnitude, which makes possible reactions that were previously considered impossible. The lab controls the behavior of the extremely highly reactive species generated by light through the combination of molecular design and metal catalysts.

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Designing catalysts with quantum chemical calculations↗

The lab uses quantum chemical calculations to clarify how a catalyst works, and applies those findings to the design of the next catalyst. It also incorporates the AFIR method developed by Prof. Maeda of the Theoretical Chemistry Lab, creating asymmetric synthesis catalysts guided by computation.

VoicesStudent voices

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