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Hirahara Lab
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The lab sees, measures, and controls the new functions of low-dimensional nanomaterials.
AboutAbout the lab
Measuring the nanoworld while watching it.
The Hirahara Lab works on exploring new functions that arise from low-dimensional nanomaterials and their higher-order structures.
One-dimensional materials such as nanotubes and two-dimensional materials such as graphene are expected to show excellent functions depending on how they assemble, in addition to the unique properties that come from their structures themselves.
To clarify the relationship between structure and properties, the lab first insists on seeing things directly.
Inside electron microscopes and atomic force microscopes, it manipulates nanostructures and, while deforming or heating them, simultaneously measures mechanical properties, wetting, electrical conduction, thermal conduction, and more.
Key terms
- Carbon nanotube
- A thin material in which carbon atoms are arranged in the shape of a tube, with a diameter on the nanometer scale.
- Probe manipulator
- A device that uses a fine probe inside a microscope to grab and move objects of nanometer size.
- van der Waals interface
- The boundary between materials held together only by the weak attractive force between molecules (the van der Waals force).
NewsLab news
View More ↗ResearchResearch themes
The lab aims to explore new functions that arise from low-dimensional nanomaterials and their higher-order structures. It visualizes, measures, and controls properties and phenomena that originate at the nanometer-scale local level or from a single nanostructured object.
*Illustrative imageCarbon Nanotubes
Nanocarbon materials show excellent properties because of their unique atomic-scale structures. The lab carries out experiments on single carbon nanotubes, elucidating the basic science of their processing and their mechanical properties, and developing functional materials that make direct use of their shapes and mechanical characteristics.
*Illustrative imageScience of van der Waals Interfaces
Materials that assemble loosely through weak forces can be given unusual functions when three-dimensional structures are built by hand. The lab aligns the interface structure at the level of a single nanotube or a single layer of a two-dimensional layered material, and measures how thermal, electrical, and thermoelectric properties change.
*Illustrative imageMaking Use of Assemblies of Nanotubes
When carbon nanotubes assemble with their orientations aligned, properties arising from the way they are assembled appear in addition to the properties of each individual tube. The lab connects this to methods for synthesizing functional materials such as CNT gecko tape, which is expected to be put to practical use as a space material, and recently aims to develop a next-generation collection material that gathers cosmic dust without contaminating or destroying it.
*Illustrative imageManipulating Nanomaterials One by One
Using a transmission electron microscope or scanning electron microscope as the eyes and a probe manipulator as the hands, the lab deforms, processes, and heats nanostructured materials one at a time. It tracks the structural changes in real time and clarifies how they relate to changes in mechanical and electrical properties.
MembersFaculty
The Hirahara Lab consists of faculty members, master's students, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorKaori Hirahara
VoicesStudent voices
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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: “CSIRO ScienceImage 1074 Carbon nanotubes being spun to form a yarn” division, CSIRO / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Carbon Nanotubes: “Metallic nanotube” No machine-readable author provided. Timmymiller assumed (based on copyright claims). / Public domain (cropped)
- Science of van der Waals Interfaces: “Graphen” AlexanderAlUS / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Making Use of Assemblies of Nanotubes: “Nanotube; Ultradark ( )” National Institute of Standards and Technology / Public domain (cropped)
- Manipulating Nanomaterials One by One: “Scanning electron microscope - UFCH JH (2020) 02” Tadeáš Bednarz / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Aoki Lab): “Molybdenite in quartz” Eurico Zimbres Zimbres / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Okawa Lab): “MCTC Darkroom ( )” Tony Webster from Portland, Oregon, United States / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Miyagawa Lab): “PhotochromicLens” User:Vista Lowcost / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Tsuda Lab): “Vial with triethylmethyl ammonium trichloride” Miskal / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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