Hideki Shirakawa

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Hideki Shirakawa
Conductive polymers
AwardsNobel Prize in Chemistry (2000)
Person of Cultural Merit (2000)
Order of Culture (2000)
Scientific career
FieldsChemistry
InstitutionsUniversity of Pennsylvania
University of Tsukuba

Hideki Shirakawa (白川 英樹, Shirakawa Hideki, born August 20, 1936) is a Japanese

Alan Heeger
.

Early life and education

Prime Minister's Official Residence
on October 18, 2000)

Hideki Shirakawa was born in

Tokyo, Japan, the second son of a military doctor. He had one elder and one younger brother and sister.[1] Olympic marathoner champion Naoko Takahashi is his second cousin-niece.[2] He lived in Manchukuo and Taiwan during childhood. Around third grade, he moved to Takayama, Gifu
, which is the hometown of his mother.

Shirakawa graduated from Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1961, and his doctorate in 1966. Afterward, he obtained the post of assistant in Chemical Resources Laboratory at Tokyo Tech.

Career

Emperor Akihito conferred the Order of Culture on Shirakawa (at the Imperial Palace
on November 3, 2000)

While employed as an assistant at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) in Japan, Shirakawa developed polyacetylene, which has a metallic appearance. This result interested Alan MacDiarmid when MacDiarmid visited Tokyo Tech in 1975.

In 1976, he was invited to work in the laboratory of

Alan Heeger.[3][4]

In 1977 they discovered that doping with

solitons
play a role.

In 1979, Shirakawa became an assistant professor in the University of Tsukuba; three years later, he advanced to a full professor. In 1991 he was appointed as Tsukuba's Chief of Science and Engineering Department of Graduate School (until March, 1993), and as Tsukuba's Chief of Category #3 group (until March, 1997).

Research

Source:[5]

Shirakawa's research on

conductive polymers can be broken down into four main categories: polyacetylene thin film synthesis, the causation of metallic conductivity due to chemical doping
, the creation of conjugated (double or triple bonds in a molecule which are separated by a single bond) liquid crystalline polymers, and acetylene polymerization development that used liquid crystals as solvents.

  1. Polyacetylene Synthesis: Polyacetylene was expected to have certain properties, with insolubility making the substance difficult to work with. Dr. Shirakawa found that polyacetylene thin films can be synthesized, and with the thin films, the doctor clarified the molecular and solidified structures of polyacetylene.
  2. Creation of Metallic Conductivity: Dr. Shirakawa found that, when a trace of a halogen such as bromine or iodine is added to thin film polyacetylene, its electric conductivity increases, and it exhibits metallic conductivity. Shirakawa found that partial electron transfer between dopants and p-electrons of polyacetylene can generate metallic conductivity.
  3. Using Liquid Crystals to Develop Acetylene Polymerization: Dr. Shirakawa developed a method for the production of highly conductive polyacetylene thin films which paralleled the polymerization of acetylene. Furthermore, he succeeded in the synthesis of thin films of helical polyacetylene whose chirality is controllable.
    1. 'Chirality:[6] a property of asymmetry, meaning a molecule is distinguishable from its mirror image; that is, it cannot be superimposed onto it
  4. Creation of Conjugated Liquid Crystalline Polymers: Dr. Shirakawa created self-oriented, conjugated liquid crystalline polymers by introducing liquid crystalline groups into the side chains of p-conjugated polymers such as polyacetylene. He also macroscopically oriented the polymers with electric or magnetic fields and succeeded in having the molecules electric anisotropy.

-The general definition of electrical anisotropy describes the variation of an electrical property depending on the lateral or vertical direction (x,y,z) in which a current flows.[7]

Recognition

The Nobel Prize

Shirakawa was awarded the 2000

National Seven Universities and the second Japanese chemistry Nobel laureate
.

Over the years, Shirakawa has expressed that he does not want the

Japanese media). He hopes that many vital areas in fields outside the Nobel Prize categories will also become more widely known.[11]

Relatives

One of his relatives, Hitomi Yoshizawa, is a member of the singing group Morning Musume Morning Girls. He is also related to Naoko Takahashi, the women's marathon gold medalist of the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Public issues

On 6 December 2013, the

House of Councillors (Japan) approved the bill of the State Secrecy Law. Shirakawa and physics Nobel laureate Toshihide Maskawa
issued a statement saying that the law:

"threatens the pacifist principles and fundamental human rights established by the constitution and should be rejected immediately...(omitted)...Even in difficult times, protecting the freedom of the press, of thought and expression and of academic research is indispensable."[12]

See also

  • List of Japanese Nobel laureates

Notes

  1. OCLC 47173441
    .
  2. ^ "Chubu Honsha-ban". Asahi Shimbun. 2000-10-12. p. 20.
  3. doi:10.1039/C39770000578. Archived from the original
    on September 25, 2017.
  4. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2000: Alan Heeger, Alan G. MacDiarmid, Hideki Shirakawa".
  5. ^ "Dr. SHIRAKAWA Hideki – University of Tsukuba". www.tsukuba.ac.jp. Retrieved 2022-12-09.
  6. ^ "Chirality", Wikipedia, 2022-11-25, retrieved 2022-12-09
  7. ^ "SURAGUS Everything about electrical anisotropy measurement". www.suragus.com. Retrieved 2022-12-09.
  8. ^ 会員個人情報 | 日本学士院
  9. ^ "Nobel Laureate Hideki Shirakawa Appointed as an Honorary Professor-Archives-Zhejiang University".
  10. ^ The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2000
  11. ^ Shirakawa unhappy with way Japanese media reports Nobel issues | The Japan Times
  12. ^ Updated: Over Scientists' Objections, Japan Adopts State Secrets Law | Science | AAAS

References

External links
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