演講快訊
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- 演講快訊

01.15
Deep-Sea-Inspired Chemistry: There’s Plenty of Room for Chemistry at the Bottom of the Ocean
Dr. Shigeru Deguchi
摘要 :
The ocean covers 71% of the Earth's surface, with an average depth of 3,682 meters. Regions deeper than 200 meters are classified as the deep sea, an environment markedly distinct from the terrestrial realm. Hydrostatic pressure steadily increases by 0.1 MPa for every 10 meters of depth, reaching approximately 110 MPa at the deepest point, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench (~11,000 meters). The deep sea is perpetually enveloped in darkness due to the complete absence of sunlight, and below 1,000 meters, the water temperature remains consistently at approximately 5 °C. An exception to these stable conditions occurs at hydrothermal vents, where superheated and compressed water, sometimes exceeding 400 °C, erupts into the surrounding cold deep water. Remarkably, diverse organisms inhabit these extreme environments, often employing highly unconventional survival strategies.
Nature has always served as an inexhaustible source of inspiration for scientific and technological advancements, as exemplified by fields such as bioinspired chemistry and biomimetics, and the deep sea is no exception. Our research endeavors to advance "deep-sea-inspired chemistry," drawing insights from the natural history of this extraordinary environment.1 The distinctive physicochemical processes occurring under extreme deep-sea conditions, along with the adaptive survival strategies of its organisms—profoundly divergent from those of terrestrial life—hold transformative potential for even well-established fields of chemistry. This lecture will present a vision for next-generation sustainable ocean utilization, realized through the integration of deep-sea-derived concepts with materials chemistry. Illustrative examples include pressure-responsive nanostructural transitions enabling on-demand polymer degradation,2 a bottom-up nanoemulsification process inspired by the dynamic thermal gradients around hydrothermal vents,3 and an ultrasensitive assay for cellulolytic enzymes leveraging the substantial specific surface area of nanofibers.4
References
1. Deguchi, S., Degaki, H., Taniguchi, I. & Koga, T. Deep-sea-inspired chemistry: A hitchhiker’s guide to the bottom of the ocean for chemists. Langmuir 39, 7987–7994 (2023).
2. Degaki, H., Taniguchi, I., Deguchi, S. & Koga, T. Critical role of lattice vacancies in pressure-induced phase transitions of baroplastic diblock copolymers. Soft Matter 20, 3728–3731 (2024).
3. Deguchi, S. & Ifuku, N. Bottom-up formation of dodecane-in-water nanoemulsions from hydrothermal homogeneous solutions. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 52, 6409–6412 (2013).
4. Tsudome, M. et al. An ultrasensitive nanofiber-based assay for enzymatic hydrolysis and deep-sea microbial degradation of cellulose. iScience 25, 104732 (2022).
學經歷 :
Shigeru Deguchi is currently the Director of the Research Center for Bioscience and Nanoscience, JAMSTEC. He graduated with a Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry from Kyoto University, Japan, in 1996. After pursuing a JST overseas fellowship at the Department of Physical Chemistry 1, Lund University, Sweden, under Prof. Björn Lindman, he joined JAMSTEC in 1999. His current research interests include soft materials under extreme conditions, nanobiotechnology, and biomimetics from extremophiles. He has received an Osawa Award from the Fullerenes, Nanotubes and Graphene Research Society; an Oleo Science Award from the Japan Oil Chemists’ Society; and a Nagase Science Technology Award from the Nagase Science Technology Foundation. He is the former President of the Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry, the Chemical Society of Japan, and currently serves as a Council Member of the International Association for Colloid and Interface Scientists (IACIS) and the Asian Society for Colloid and Surface Science (ASCAS).