The Oshio lab is a complex systems and coordination chemistry group based at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. The group is involved in a wide range of areas, which can be broadly grouped as ‘Responsive Molecular Systems’, ‘Coordination Architectures’ and ‘Functional Molecular Oxides’. A bistable system can rest in two stable phases, at free energy minima, and switching between the phases can be achieved by the application of external stimuli such as temperature/light/pressure/host-guest interactions... Bistable molecules have, therefore, attracted intense research interest due to their potential applications in molecular switches and memory devices, for which spin-crossover (SCO) and electron transfer–active chromophores are promising building blocks. Multi-component materials, in which each component exhibits different bistability, can be expected to show synergistic properties, such as stepped phase transition and selective excitation to meta-stable states and may function as multibistable molecular switching systems.

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