2022/01/13
Keio University
Kobe University
A research group, including Professor Taku Hasobe from the Faculty of Science and Technology at Keio University, Shunta Nakamura (a third-year student in the Doctoral Programs at the Graduate School of Science and Technology at the time of the research, now a JSPS Research Fellow (PD)), and Professor Yasuhiro Kobori from the Research Center for Molecular Photochemistry at Kobe University, has proposed and demonstrated a new concept in material design. This concept is aimed at the effective use of energy by increasing the efficiency of "singlet fission," a process that converts the number of photons absorbed by an organic material upon light irradiation into twice the number of excitons. In their demonstration experiment, they achieved an exciton generation efficiency of 200%. By utilizing these highly efficient excitons, the group demonstrated their utility, achieving 170% efficiency for electron transfer (useful for material and energy conversion) and 160% efficiency for the generation of singlet oxygen (a type of reactive oxygen species), which is useful for applications such as photodynamic therapy (light-based cancer treatment) and organic synthesis. This work is expected to contribute to fields such as energy conversion using sunlight, electronics, quantum information and communication, and life sciences/medicine.
This research result was published online in the American scientific journal "ACS Energy Letters" (impact factor: 23.101) on December 27, 2021.
Please see below for the full press release.