Yoshiko Miura

Cellulose-based adsorbents offer a sustainable platform for uranium recovery from seawater, but simple functionalization strategies that enable effective uranium capture under highly competitive marine conditions remain limited. Here, we report a post-phosphorylation strategy for introducing uranium-binding functionality into a preformed freeze-crosslinked carboxymethyl cellulose nanofiber (CMCF) sponge while retaining its interconnected macroporous architecture. Impregnation of the cellulose sponge with NH4H2PO4/urea followed by mild thermal treatment at 120 °C introduced up to 114 ± 18 mg P g–1 sponge. In seawater spiked with 10 mg L–1 U(VI), both nonphosphorylated and phosphorylated CMCF sponges showed similarly high U removal (>96%), largely obscuring the effect of phosphate functionalization. In contrast, a pronounced phosphate-dependent enhancement emerged under realistic seawater conditions: the nonphosphorylated sponge showed negligible U removal from natural seawater, whereas the post-phosphorylated P1-CMCF sponge achieved approximately 99% U removal within 24 h. SEM–EDX and XPS analyses further supported uranium accumulation at phosphate-rich cellulose interfaces and the involvement of phosphate-associated oxygen donor sites in U binding. The captured uranium was nearly quantitatively recovered using 0.1 mol L–1 NaHCO3, and adsorption performance was maintained over three adsorption–desorption cycles. These results demonstrate that simple post-phosphorylation of a preformed macroporous cellulose scaffold provides accessible uranium-binding interfaces while preserving the underlying transport architecture, offering a straightforward route to efficient and regenerable uranium recovery under chemically complex seawater conditions.

Bayesian optimization was applied to poly(methyl methacrylate) microparticles with target size and narrow distribution. The optimized particles exhibited excellent performance in a packed-bed photoreactor.

Influenza A virus is a medically important target. Hemagglutinin (HA), a trimeric glycoprotein on the viral surface, recognizes sialylated glycans through three receptor-binding sites. Glycoligands that interact with HA through multivalent binding can serve as viral inhibitors. To achieve efficient multivalent binding, precise control over glycoligand structures is essential. Here, we synthesized glycooligomers displaying sialyllactose units at defined intramolecular spacings and investigated how ligand structure affects binding to HA. Glycooligomers displaying one, two, or three sialyllactose units at regular intervals exhibited enhanced binding as carbohydrate valency increased. When the spacing between two sialyllactose units was varied, shorter spacing enhanced binding, likely because of a statistical rebinding effect. Interestingly, the presentation of an excessive number of sialyllactose units weakened the interaction with HA, presumably because of steric hindrance. These findings highlight the importance of precise carbohydrate arrangement in the design of effective multivalent ligands.

Water is indispensable to life and plays a central role in biological functions. In this study, glycopolymers with distinct backbones (acrylamide or acrylate) and linker lengths (methylene or ethylene) were synthesized via RAFT polymerization to investigate their hydration states. Thermal analysis revealed that glycopolymers with an acrylamide backbone retained more hydration water than those with acrylate backbones. This trend was consistently supported by terahertz spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations. In addition, the amount of hydration water increased with increasing linker length. Hemagglutination inhibition assays showed that acrylate-type glycopolymers exhibited markedly higher binding affinity for concanavalin A than their acrylamide-type counterparts across all degrees of polymerization. Importantly, these results reveal a clear inverse correlation between the amount of hydration water and binding affinity, indicating that excessive hydration hinders lectin recognition.

In the case of 4D hydrogels, thermal‐responsive behavior is typically investigated through variations in formulation parameters such as monomer ratios, ingredient composition, and solid content concentration. We developed and analyzed a thermally responsive 4D hydrogel using poly( N ‐isopropylacrylamide) (NIPAm) as a representative lower critical solution temperature (LCST) polymer, and poly( N,N‐ dimethylacrylamide) (DMAAm) as a non‐thermoresponsive polymer. The effects of varying monomer ratios and solid concentrations were investigated under two fixed NIPAm content conditions (50% and 75%), as determined based on prior experimental outcomes. Hydrogels were synthesized via photoinduced electron/energy transfer‐reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (PET‐RAFT) polymerization and were comprehensively characterized using Fourier‐transform infrared (FT‐IR) spectroscopy, rheological measurements, swelling ratio analysis, and 4D motion behavior assessment. Bilayer‐structured hydrogel samples were fabricated and evaluated under thermal stimuli at 70 C to investigate their deformation behavior. Based on these results, we developed a 4D hydrogel‐based gripper as a demonstration of the potential practical applications of thermoresponsive 4D materials in soft robotics and smart actuator systems.

Polymerizable zwitterionic monomers derived from amino acids exhibited ice recrystallization inhibition activity; however, this activity was lost upon polymerization into polymers.

Sialic acid-binding immunoglobulin-like lectins (Siglecs) are a family of membrane proteins that bind sialic acids, most of which possess cytoplasmic immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motifs. Glycoligands capable of modulating Siglec-mediated responses therefore have potential as therapeutic agents for immune-related diseases. Herein, we synthesized linear and cyclic glycopolymers that multivalently present sialic acid ligands targeting Siglec-E, which is highly expressed on murine macrophages, and evaluated the effect of polymer topology on Siglec-mediated signal suppression. Although no significant difference was observed between the two polymer architectures, the glycopolymers suppressed NF-κB signaling more effectively than the monomeric sialic acid ligand.

A cross-linking structure regulates the reaction microenvironment of polymer-bound Ru( ii ) photocatalysts by balancing catalyst mobility and O ₂ accessibility, enabling excellent photocatalytic performance.

Fine chemical synthesis under solvent-free or solvent-less mechanochemical conditions is highly desirable from a green chemistry perspective.