Living things including human beings are all made up of molecules. The molecules of life play great roles such as energy transduction, information processing, molecule syntheses, and self-replication. Molecules produced by men presently are relatively simple compared to those in nature. My rationale is that it must be possible, however, to make artificial molecules that can, like in life, transduce energy, process information, synthesize molecules, and self-replicate, since synthetic chemistry can produce novel molecules. Furthermore, artificial molecules can accomplish things natural molecules cannot. I name such molecular systems with sophisticated functions MOLECULAR DEVICES and am studying how to make higher-functioning molecules through the cycle of the design, synthesis, and evaluation of novel molecules.

MOLECULAR SWITCHING DEVICES
Several years ago, we found that a ruthenium complex having an azo group (-N=N-) plays the role of molecular switch by changing on/off its luminescence upon adding and removing an electron. We are developing various molecular switches as extensions of this result.

ARTIFICIAL PHOTOSYNTHETIC DEVICES
Photosynthesis is a process converting light energy from the sun into chemical energy. The reason why plants can do this is because plants have molecular solar cells that produce electrical current on light absorption. We are studying constructing molecular organization that produce electrical current on light absorption, taking advantage of the self-assembling ability of molecules.

SINGLE MOLECULE ELECTRONICS DEVICES
The notion that much smaller molecules may replace semiconductors in electronic and optical devices attracts attention as a next generation nanotechnology. We are studying single-molecule electronic devices based on our expertise in metal complexes.

MOLECULE SENSING DEVICES
The reason living things can keep order, despite being composed of a tremendous mixture of molecules, is that molecules can distinguish one another as if they had eyes. We are synthesizing artificial molecules that can distinguish specific molecules or form beautiful higher-order structures.

SURFACE SUPRAMOLECULAR CHEMISTRY
For molecular devices come true, a method is needed to precisely place molecules at predetermined positions on a surface.We are investigating how molecules assemble themselves into precise patterns on surfaces to develop a methodology to fabricate molecular architectures on surfaces.