Current topics on harmonized molecular materials

The objective of this report is to survey current topics on what we call 'harmonized molecular materials', including organic/organic or organic/inorganic hybrid materials such as host-guest suprarmolecular materials, organometallic complexes, self-assembled monolayers, layered inorganic/organic compounds or films,liquid crystals, and microporous materials, which are fabricated with the aid of molecular synergism. Recently, much attention has been focused on these state-of-the-art materials, because they are not only basically interesting, but also promising for potential applications. They are expected to achieve high performance in chemical, electronic, or optical function and to make a breakthrough of related industrial technologies in near future. Since there are quite a lot of research activities in this field, it is impossible to cover all of them in this issue. This report deals with as many topics as possible to see the present status and the future prospect of the related materials.