English / 日本語
Welcome! We're in Kyushu, Japan.
We are experimental chemists working at Kyushu University, Japan. We are interested in creating new functional chemistry of photo-excited triplet state. We are particularly interested in triplet-triplet annihilation-based photon upconversion (TTA-UC) for many applications ranging from renewable energy production to photodynamic therapy and optogenetics. We have also recently started a new project on triplet-DNP (dynamic nuclear polarization) towards the room-temperature hyperpolarization of biomolecules for advanced NMR/MRI technologies. Trying to establish new concepts in materials science from Kyushu!!
An example of our photon upconversion materials:
Latest News
2023.1.3 Our new work on the first room-temperature observation of quintet quantum coherence has been published in Science Advances!
2023.12.11 Our new work on "Spin-Polarized Radicals with Extremely Long Spin–Lattice Relaxation Time at Room Temperature in a Metal–Organic Framework" has been just published in JACS!
2023.11.21 Our new work, the first example of triplet-DNP of pyruvate, has been published in Chemical Science. We used the power of supramolecular chemistry!
2023.10.24 Our new work "Polarizing agents beyond pentacene for efficient triplet dynamic nuclear polarization in glass matrices" has been just published in PNAS!
2023.7.31 Excited to host a seminar by Prof. Christoph Kerzig!! You can also join his talk through YouTube Live, don't miss it! Registrationn from this link: https://forms.gle/Y2vCiha1WfcAkTCJA
2023.6.27 Excited to host a seminar by Prof. Grace Han on July 14!
Want to participate online? Register at the link below and join us via YouTube Live! https://forms.gle/AbBHxhGJw3t7nHiM6
2023.6.20 Excited to host a seminar by Prof. Ming Lee Tang! If you want to join it throught YouTube Live, please register in the following link. You can ask questions through chat.
2023.5.19 Nobu gave an online talk at Global NMR Discussion Meetings.
2023.4.14 Our article is featured in a Nature Communications Editors’ Highlights webpage!
2023.3.2 The 7th Yanai lab seminar: Prof. Asif Equbal, NYU Abu Dhabi
2023.3.1 Our paper on the use of singlet fission as a polarized spin generator for DNP has been just published in Nature Commum.!
2022.12.1 Collaboration work with the Christoph Kerzig lab at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (JGU) has been published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.
2022.11.27 Bibhisan got an Assistant Professor position at Garhwal University in India, congratulations! Good luck and keep in touch!!
2022.11.5 Highlighted as a Supplementary Cover of J. Am. Chem. Soc.!
2022.9.30 Julian from the Christoph Kerzig lab at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (JGU) will be staying with us for six months for a joint research project. Welcome to the Yanai lab!!
2022.9.17 New paper in JACS: We proved that polarization transfer from solid nanocrystals to liquid water is indeed possible!
2022.8.23 New paper in ChemRxiv: Quantum chemical sensing using molecular triplet qubits in a flexible metal–organic framework
2022.5.20 The 4th Yanai lab seminar: Dr. Sebastian Sprick (University of Strathclyde, UK)
2022.8.17 The collaboration work with the Kasper Moth-Poulsen group has been published in JMCA. Congrats Pankaj and all!
2022.7.4 Welcome Anne and Tsumugi from the Ming Lee Tang group (University of Utah)! Anne stayed for 1 month to start our collaboration projects through NSF IRES program.
2022.5.21 The first excursion of the Yanai Lab, everyone went to Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine to pray for the success of the research!
2022.5.20 The third Yanai lab seminar: Prof. Feldblyum from SUNY.
2022.4.1 The Yanai lab has started! We'd appreciate the innovative system of JST-FOREST and the tremendous support of Kyushu University.
Catherine and Wataru joined us as the first students of the Yanai lab, welcome!!
2022.2.5 First example of triplet-DNP of bulk liquid water, out in ChemRxiv.
2022.1.27 New paper in Inorg. Chem.: the elongation of the triplet lifetime of Os complexes showing S-T absorption.
2022.1.11 New paper in ACS AMI: the highest upconversion efficiency in rigid polymer materials.
2022.1.11 New paper in JMCC: no more heavy metals needed for Vis-to-UV upconversion with >20% efficiency.
2021.12.22. New paper in Angew. Chem.: the first room-temperature hyperpolarization of guest molecules in nanopores.
2021.11.23 New paper published in Nanoscale about perovskite-sensitized green-to-UV TTA-UC.
2121.11.4 Received The Asian and Oceanian Photochemistry Association (APA) Prize for Young Scientist on behalf of my great group members and collaborators. Grateful for the recognition on our upconversion and hyperpolarization works using photo-excited triplet.
2021.10.20 Another joint paper with the Jenny Clark group about the competition between singlet fission and energy collection in NIR-to-visible TTA-UC has been published in J. Mater. Chem. C.
2021.10.14 Collaboration work with the Jenny Clark group about the new understanding of spin statistics of TTA-upconversion has been published in JACS Au.
2021.9.21 Received The Japanese Photochemistry Association Award for Young Scientist.
2021.5.13 Published the design guideline to achieve porphyrins with high polarization as well as long spin-lattice relaxation time in J. Phys. Chem. A
2021.4.21 Appointed as a Research Area Advisor of JST-PRESTO "Future Materials".
2021.4.6 Received the Young Scientist Award by MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) for our works on photon upconversion and triplet-DNP.
2021.3.11 Debuted porphyrins as new polarizing agents in J. Phys. Chem. Lett. This is also the first example of triplet-DNP of biomolecules.
2021.3.4 Published the first example of rigid epoxy resins showing photon upconversion in ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces.
2021.2.20 Published an editorial article for the J. Chem. Phys. special issue "Up- and down-conversion in molecules and materials".
2021.2.9 Selected as a J. Mater. Chem. C. Emerging Investigator 2021. The first collaboration paper with the Moth-Poulsen group.
2020.12.18 Press Release from Angew. Chem. about our recent paper on visible-to-UV upconversion.
2020.12.9 Our recent Angew. paper was highlighted in ChemStation.
2020.12.4 News Release from EurekAlert!
2020.11.25 Interview article is published in STI Horizon. (in Japanese, 文部科学省 科学技術・学術政策研究所 ナイスステップな研究者インタビュー)
2020.10.16 New paper in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.: Discovery of Key TIPS‐Naphthalene for Efficient Visible‐to‐UV Photon Upconversion under Sunlight and Room Light.
2020.7.31 Gave an online talk at NISTEP, MEXT (in Japanese, 文部科学省 科学技術・学術政策研究所)
2020.7.1 Gave a talk at the online seminar organized by the Griffin group, MIT. Video is available:
2020.7.3 Our review article about materials chemistry of triplet-DNP has been highlighted as a Front Cover of Chem. Commun.
2020.5.15 Talked about our recent upconversion and hyperpolarization works in the online symposium organized by ChemStation (the largest chemistry portal site in Japan).
Video is available:
2019.12.06 Joined the Early Career Advisory Board of ChemNanoMat, Wiley.
2019.12.06 Selected as "NISTEP Selection (The Researchers with Nice Step) 2019" from NISTEP, MEXT, Japan. Sincere thanks to great group members and collaborators!!
2019.7.26 Welcome Emily Raulerson (Roberts group, U. Texas Austin), Emily Moses (Tang group, UC Riverside), and Matthew Quan (Ferry group, U. Minnesota)! They'll stay for 3 weeks in Fukuoka to start our collaboration projects through NSF IRES program.
2019.5.6 Received The Wiley Young Researcher Award conferred on early career researchers in the Asia-Pacific region. It's a great honor to be selected among hundreds of applications.
Contact Address
Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of
Engineering, Kyushu University
West 3-611, 744 Moto-oka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan
TEL +81-92-802-2836
E-mail: yanai[at]mail.cstm.kyushu-u.ac.jp