Susumu Kitagawa, Kyoto University, Japan, talks about his research and explains what makes metal–organic frameworks so special.

He has received the Emanuel Merck Lectureship 2019 “for his pioneering scientific work in the field of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs)” by Merck and the University of Darmstadt. The prize, worth € 30,000, was presented during a public lecture at the Technical University Darmstadt, Germany, on May 13, 2019.

We met Susumu Kitagawa in the Historic Museum at Merck’s headquarter in Darmstadt for this video. A longer interview with Susumu Kitagawa is published in Nachrichten aus der Chemie (Issue 11, 2019: “Vom Nutzen des Nutzlosen”, Interview mit Susumu Kitagawa).

Susumu Kitagawa was born in Japan in 1951. He studied chemistry at Kyoto University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1979. He became Assistant Professor at Kindai University, Japan, in 1979. Susumu Kitagawa was promoted to Lecturer in 1983 and to Associate Professor in 1988. He joined Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan, in 1992 as Professor of Inorganic Chemistry and returned to Kyoto University as Professor in 1998. He has served there as Director of the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences since 2013.

Among other awards, Susumu Kitagawa has received the Humboldt Research Prize in 2008, the Chemical Society of Japan Award in 2009, and the 2017 Chemistry for the Future Solvay Prize.  His research focuses on coordination chemistry and porous materials.

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Selected Publications

• In Situ Tracking of Dynamic NO Capture through a Crystal-to-Crystal Transformation from a Gate-Open-Type Chain Porous Coordination Polymer to a NO-Adducted Discrete Isomer,
  Jun Zhang, Wataru Kosaka, Susumu Kitagawa, Masaki Takata, Hitoshi Miyasaka,
  Chem. Eur. J. 2019, 25, 3020–3031.
  https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201805833
• Borohydride-containing coordination polymers: synthesis, air stability and dehydrogenation,
  Kentaro Kadota, Nghia Tuan Duong, Yusuke Nishiyama, Easan Sivaniah, Susumu Kitagawa, Satoshi Horike,
  Chem. Sci. 2019, 10, 6193–6198.
  https://doi.org/10.1039/c9sc00731h
• Homogenized Bimetallic Catalysts from Metal–Organic Framework Alloys,
  Jet-Sing M. Lee, Yu-ichi Fujiwara, Susumu Kitagawa, Satoshi Horike,
  Chem. Mater. 2019, 31, 4205–4212.
  https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.9b01093
• Partially fluorinated MIL-101(Cr): from a miniscule structure modification to a huge chemical environment transformation inspected by ¹²⁹Xe NMR,
  Mariana L. Díaz-Ramírez, Elí Sánchez-González, J. Raziel Àlvarez, Gerardo A. González-Martínez, Satoshi Horike, Kentaro Kadota, Kenji Sumida, Eduardo González-Zamora, Marie-Anne Springuel-Huet, Aída Gutiérrez-Alejandre, Vojtech Jancik, Shuhei Furukawa, Susumu Kitagawa, Ilich A. Ibarra, Enrique Lima,
  J. Mater. Chem. A 2019, 7, 15101–15112.
  https://doi.org/10.1039/c9ta02237f
• Storage of CO₂ into Porous Coordination Polymer Controlled by Molecular Rotor Dynamics,
  Munehiro Inukai, Masanori Tamura, Satoshi Horike, Masakazu Higuchi, Susumu Kitagawa, Koichi Nakamura,
  Angew. Chem, Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 8687–8690.
  https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201805111
• Atomic Force Microscopy Study of the Influence of the Synthesis Conditions on the Single‐Crystal Surface of Interdigitated Metal‐Organic Frameworks,
  Yoshinobu Kamakura, Nobuhiko Hosono, Aya Terashima, Susumu Kitagawa, Hirofumi Yoshikawa, Daisuke Tanaka,
  ChemPhysChem 2018, 19, 2134–2138.
  https://doi.org/10.1002/cphc.201800439
• Metal–Organic Frameworks (MOFs),
  Hong-Cai “Joe” Zhou, Susumu Kitagawa,
  Chem. Soc. Rev. 2014, 43, 5415–5418.
  https://doi.org/10.1039/c4cs90059f
• Soft porous crystals,
  Satoshi Horike, Satoru Shimomura, Susumu Kitagawa,
  Nat. Chem. 2009, 1, 695–704.
  https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.444
• Three-Dimensional Porous Coordination Polymer Functionalized with Amide Groups Based on Tridentate Ligand: Selective Sorption and Catalysis,
  Shinpei Hasegawa, Satoshi Horike, Ryotaro Matsuda, Shuhei Furukawa, Katsunori Mochizuki, Yoshinori Kinoshita, Susumu Kitagawa,
  J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 2607–2614.
  https://doi.org/10.1021/ja067374y

Article Information

https:/doi.org/10.1002/chemv.201900073