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Functional Polymer Chemistry Lab
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A precision polymerization lab that creates polymers whose connectivity is controlled exactly as designed.
AboutAbout the lab
Polymers made precise, down to the sequence of their molecules.
The Kamigaito Lab develops new polymerization reactions that can be controlled, and uses them to create polymers with precisely controlled structures.
A polymer is a large molecule made of many small molecules (monomers) linked together.
Natural polymers such as proteins have precisely determined length, three-dimensional shape, and even the order in which monomers are linked, but synthetic polymers cannot yet be controlled to that degree.
The lab is also working on new bio-based polymers made from plant-derived monomers.
Key terms
- Monomer
- A small molecule that serves as the building block of a polymer. When many are linked together, they become a polymer
- Living polymerization
- A polymerization in which the linking reaction does not stop partway, making it possible to uniformly control polymer length and end-group structure
- Stereoregularity
- The property of groups attached to a polymer chain being oriented in a regular, ordered arrangement. It affects the performance of the material
NewsLab news
A master's student received the Excellent On-Demand Presentation Award at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Polymer Science, Japan
A paper on radical copolymerization of formaldehyde and vinyl acetate was published in J. Am. Chem. Soc.
An internationally co-authored review on recent advances in RAFT polymerization was published in Adv. Sci.
Lecturer Uchiyama received the 2024 Polymer Journal Paper Award – Nippon Zeon Award
A paper on proton-transfer anionic polymerization was published in Nature Chemistry, with a press release
ResearchResearch themes
The lab develops new precision polymerization reactions with controlled reactivity and precisely synthesizes polymers with controlled structures. It aims to lead to the development of polymer materials with excellent performance and functions.
*Illustrative imageLiving polymerization for uniform molecular weight
The lab designs new methods that reversibly activate covalent bonds in radical and cationic polymerization, developing new living polymerizations that control polymer length (molecular weight) and end-group structure.
*Illustrative imagePolymerization that controls three-dimensional configuration
The lab builds mechanisms for controlling three-dimensional configuration into living radical and cationic polymerization, developing polymerizations that control molecular weight and stereoregularity at the same time.
*Illustrative imageControlling the sequence of monomers
The lab creates polymers with controlled monomer sequences by adding Lewis acids and other additives in copolymerization to change how monomers link, and by polymerizing starting materials in which monomers have been linked one by one in order.
*Illustrative imageCombining different polymerizations
The lab runs polymerizations with different mechanisms simultaneously on a single polymer chain, synthesizing polymers that could not previously be made with a single polymerization. It has succeeded in making copolymers such as those linking vinyl polymers and polyesters.
MembersFaculty
The Kamigaito Lab's members consist of faculty, administrative staff, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorMasami Kamigaito
- LecturerMineto Uchiyama
- Assistant ProfessorHironobu Watanabe
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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: “Glassware ( )” Anders Sandberg from Oxford, UK / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Living polymerization for uniform molecular weight: “Cold traps” Firsthuman / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Polymerization that controls three-dimensional configuration: “Polymers Tacticity V.1” Jü / CC0 (cropped)
- Controlling the sequence of monomers: “Verrerie-p1030896” Rama / CC BY-SA 2.0 fr (cropped)
- Combining different polymerizations: “BiodegradablePlasticUtensils2” Scott Bauer / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (有機反応化学研究グループ): “Prentice Hall Molecular Model Set for General Organic Chemistry 8139” Bin im Garten / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (超分子・高分子化学研究グループ): “Polymer chain SPT” SPT Paul Topham / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (機能材料化学研究グループ): “NASA astronaut Jonny Kim removes research hardware from inside the Materials Science Laboratory (iss073e0222456)” NASA Johnson Space Center / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (多孔材料化学研究グループ): “Zeolite-ZSM-5-3D-vdW” 作者不詳 / Public domain (cropped)
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