Chuo’s International Joint Research with Universities in Switzerland and the Netherlands is Published in Nature Nanotechnology

Professor Masaaki Haga of Chuo University’s Department of Applied Chemistry in the Faculty of Science and Engineering and Institute Associate Professor Hiroaki Ozawa of Chuo University’s Research and Development Initiative, conducted joint research with the University of Bern from Switzerland, as well as Leiden University and Delft University of Technology from the Netherlands, the results of which were published in Nature Nanotechnology.

The research group has discovered molecular diodes based on a metallic complex, which can be turned on and off by humidity. Molecular diodes has become an active area of research in recent years, and molecular diodes with various mechanisms have been found by many researchers. However, molecular diodes with rectification ratios which change by several thousand times in response to the exterior environment have not been reported before, and this was a world first.

It is expected that the molecular diodes which change their rectification ratios reversibly in response to exterior humidity will contribute to the miniaturization of sensors to detect moisture and alcohol on the molecular level.

The research was supported by publicly offered research “Coordination Asymmetry” in the MEXT Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas for FY 2017-2019 and the Science Research Promotion Fund for FY 2017 of the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan.