Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences
Tohoku University

Researcher

Atsushi Tahara

Assistant ProfessorAdvanced Basic Science

Mentor Information
Professor
Takayuki Doi (Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences)
Research Fields Organometallic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry
Research Subjects
  • Transition metal-catalyzed functionalization of simple hydrocarbons
  • Development of biomass materials for carbon cycle
  • Catalyst design lead by computational study
Academic Society Membership The Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ), The Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan (SSOCJ), The Society of Silicon Chemistry, Japan.
Research Outline  

Transformation of simple hydrocarbons such as alkanes (including methane) and arenes requires harsh reaction conditions due to their thermal stability. To develop effective catalysts, mimicking enzymes such as methane monooxygenase has been researched. While progress of analytical studies (XRD or spectroscopy) reveals the structures of the enzymes, the catalytic activity of the model compounds has not been reproduced. I focused on the information obtained from computational study enabling to detect catalytically-active species, which are difficult to visualize from analytical studies. In FRIS, based on organic/organometallic chemistry, interdisciplinary sciences between experimental and computational studies will be researched to develop effective catalysts for the transformation of simple hydrocarbons, corbon dioxide, and biomass molecules.

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