Dawn of New Materials Science
This website introduces progress in a new academic field, "Exploration of Nanostructure–Property Relationships for Materials Innovation". This project is funded by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan for five years beginning in FY2013.
There are many examples where nanostructures play a decisive role in material properties: characteristic atomic arrangement and electronic state localized in the surface, interface, and point defects. We have produced groundbreaking results and have directly observed individual atoms in nanostructures. These results have been utilized for concrete material design/development, theoretical calculations, and analyses to acquire quantitative information of such atoms directly.
The objective of this project is to pioneer nanomaterials science and to establish methodologies to rationally utilize the acquired nanostructure information. To this end, close collaborations among materials science and other academic fields, especially information science, are indispensable. Generally, it is challenging for researchers in different academic fields to communicate with each other. In this project, we made a conscience effort to share research goals and technical terms. As a result, we have produced high-quality results via integrated research at a speed that has exceeded our initial expectations. Furthermore, we have trained many next-generation young researchers and established their networks. I can now feel the breath of new materials science.
Prof. Isao Tanaka
Project Leader
Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University
