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Nishihara Lab
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The lab builds new carbon materials from the atomic and molecular level up.
AboutAbout the lab
Assembling the remarkable world of carbon, atom by atom.
The Nishihara Lab studies carbon-based materials whose structures have been difficult both to control and to visualize.
Using organic synthesis and chemical vapor deposition, the lab creates new materials by building them up from the atomic and molecular level.
With advanced analytical techniques, the lab understands and controls chemical properties such as reactivity, corrosion resistance, and catalytic function from a molecular perspective.
The materials the lab creates are being developed for applications in supercapacitors, secondary batteries, fuel cells, heat pumps, adsorbents, and healthcare, in collaboration with research institutions and companies in Japan and abroad.
Key terms
- Graphene
- A sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal pattern, just one atom thick
- Chemical vapor deposition
- A method in which source gases react so that a target substance is deposited on a surface
- Nanoporous material
- A material with many pores on the nanometer scale. Its internal surface area is very large
NewsLab news
In a joint research group with the University of Tsukuba, Kyoto University, and others, the lab immobilized ruthenium atoms on a carbon material at high density and converted CO2 into formic acid
A master's student won the Outstanding Poster Award at the GteX Battery Field Young Researchers Exchange Meeting 2026
A master's student won a Presentation Award at the Tohoku University & Ewha Womans University Joint Symposium 2026
Research results were featured on the cover of the Journal of the American Chemical Society
In a joint research group with Queen Mary University of London, the lab achieved low-temperature graphene formation from acetylene at 300°C
ResearchResearch themes
The lab builds carbon-based materials, mainly amorphous ones whose structures are difficult to make uniform, from the atomic and molecular level up. It understands the chemical properties of the resulting materials on a molecular basis and controls them precisely, and is advancing their application in a wide range of fields such as batteries, catalysts, and heat pumps.
*Illustrative imageNanoporous Materials Made of Single-Layer Graphene
Most materials called "porous graphene" are either stacks of graphene layers or are dominated by large pores. The lab studies zeolite-templated carbon and graphene mesosponge, which are composed mainly of graphene that is just one atom thick and have well-developed fine pores of 50 nm or smaller. These materials combine a large adsorption capacity, resistance to oxidation, high electrical conductivity, and flexibility.
*Illustrative imagePhysical Chemistry of Deformable Nanoporous Materials
Nanoporous materials made of single-layer graphene are mechanically soft and can shrink and recover like a sponge. The lab calls such materials "nanosponges" and uses phenomena such as liquid-filled nanosponges turning the liquid into gas when squeezed to lead to the design of a new type of heat pump.
*Illustrative imageCarbon with an Ordered Structure
Turning organic matter into carbon severely disrupts its structure, so it has been difficult to preserve the original arrangement of the molecules. By carefully designing the molecules to suppress this collapse during carbonization, the lab has succeeded in making ordered carbon structures that retain both an ordered structure and a molecular-level chemical structure, and is advancing their application as catalyst materials to replace platinum.
*Illustrative imageCarbon Materials for Healthcare
Honeycomb-shaped materials, such as those used in automobile exhaust systems, could not be made with holes narrower than about 200 μm by extrusion. The lab makes honeycombs with narrow holes by using ice crystals as a template, and by combining them with cellulose nanofibers and graphene it has developed honeycomb materials that deform softly like a sponge, and is advancing their application in healthcare.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Nishihara Lab are faculty, project researchers, secretaries and technical assistants, academic researchers and visiting researchers, students in the doctoral program, master's program, and undergraduate program, and research students.As of 2026
- ProfessorHirotomo Nishihara
- Associate ProfessorTakeharu Yoshii
- Assistant ProfessorHirotaka Nakatsuji
- Project Assistant ProfessorSunny Ramchandra Gurav
- Project Assistant ProfessorMeng Wang
- Project Assistant ProfessorMengxuan Zhang
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Activated Carbon” Ravedave / CC BY 2.5 (cropped)
- Nanoporous Materials Made of Single-Layer Graphene: “D-L- Glucose farbig V1” Vectorization: Alhadis / Public domain (cropped)
- Physical Chemistry of Deformable Nanoporous Materials: “Sponge Macro” Prosthetic Head / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Carbon with an Ordered Structure: “DUT-5 PerspectiveView CrossSection” Canucksplayer (talk) / Public domain (cropped)
- Carbon Materials for Healthcare: “Aufgeschnittener Metall Katalysator für ein Auto” User Stahlkocher on de.wikipedia / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Tomishige Lab): “Dry Raney nickel” en:User:Rune.welsh / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Kumakiri Lab): “Mebrane Fibres” Gert Swinner / CC BY 2.5 pl (cropped)
- Related lab (Takahashi Lab): “Lysozyme Protein Crystal in Hanging-Drop Crystallization” Rohit Sharma / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Aoki Lab): “Combustor-Temp-Plane” Atif Masood (FetchCFD) / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
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