My research centers on understanding the structure and functionality of chiral molecular assemblies, with a particular focus on elucidating homochirality in biological phenomena. To achieve this, I employ coordination chemistry to construct chiral structures. Recently, we discovered that five-coordinate iridium(III) complexes, which exhibit helical chirality at the metal center, preferentially form homochiral dimers and demonstrate thermo-/mechano-chromism through a monomer–dimer transformation. By exploiting this phenomenon, we are working on the design and functional development of discrete chiral assemblies, while also exploring their applications in supramolecular structures.

K. Takimoto et al., Dalton Trans. 2021, 50, 13256–13263.

https://doi.org/10.1039/d1dt01960k (Outside back cover)

K. Takimoto et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, 25160–25169.

https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.3c05866 (ChemRxiv) 

We hybridized cationic chiral iridium(III) complexes with negatively charged clay nanosheets through electrostatic interactions. The resulting hybrid material exhibits strong luminescence, with a maximum ΦPL of > 0.8, and demonstrates enantioselective emission quenching when exposed to chiral guest molecules in aqueous environments. This material holds promise for biomedical applications, particularly as a platform for sensing the chirality of biomolecules and drugs.

K. Takimoto et al., Dalton Trans. 2017, 46, 4397–4402.

https://doi.org/10.1039/C7DT00606C 

K. Takimoto et al., New J. Chem. 2018, 42, 4818–4823.

https://doi.org/10.1039/c7nj04688j (Inside front cover)