Research
Research Field
Development of photochemical reactions, which are
initiated with light as an ecofriendly energy source, is important since such
reactions are contrastive to thermal reactions. Meanwhile, electron-transfer
reaction is one of the most fundamental chemical phenomena. They also concern
with our daily life such as human's visual recognition system and recent
industrial technologies.
Focusing on the photochemical and
electron-transfer reactions of organic compounds, we are studying on novel
phenomena, mechanisms, and their potential applications. In photoinduced
electron-transfer reactions, highly reactive intermediates such as radical
cations and biradicals are involved. We are elucidating their mechanisms by
various methods based on organic and physical chemistry such as the laser flash
photolysis. Recently, an application of back electron-transfer process to the
luminescence system led us a successful observation of a novel
thermoluminescence phenomenon from electronically excited triplet biradicals and
a trial manufacturing of organic radical light-emitting devices (ORLEDs).
We are also interested in development of organic materials for semiconductor, light-emitting diode, and solar-energy conversion.