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Research Director: Susumu KITAGAWA
(Professor, The Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences, Kyoto University)
Research Term: 2007-2012

Research Director: Omar M. Yaghi
(Professor, University of California)

Recently, remarkable progress has been made in the synthesis of coordination compounds with infinite structures, and in particular compounds with backbones constructed from metal ions as connectors and ligands as linkers, so-called coordination polymers (CPs). The pores of porous CPs (PCP) can exhibit a versatile array of functions, such as storage, exchange, separation, and catalysis. To date PCPs are found in fledgling, 'Phase I' developments, in which pore functions are explored individually. Our aim of this project is to establish a symbiotic integration of porous materials and porous functions; hence, to develop PCPs with "controllable and flexible performance responsive to target environments", that is 'Phase II' developments. These environments range in size from the intermolecular or interatomic distances of the pores of materials (0.1-10 nm) up to the space inside biological cells (100 nm). Nonlinear, cooperative events taking place in mesospace present challenging problems and may hold the key to the technologies of tomorrow.