Creation of novel functional molecules based on structural modification of phthalocyanine

Phthalocyanine is a fascinating conjugated molecule owing to the unique optical and electrochemical properties arising from the 18π -electron conjugated system, and it has been utilized in a variety of fields related to our daily life. Creation of novel functional molecules based on the structural modification of this molecule have, therefore, been of great importance. In the last decade, we have developed the synthesis of phthalocyanine analogues by core-modification as well as peripheral modification and revealed their unique optical and electrochemical properties. In addition, based on the knowledge obtained during the phthalocyanine research, we have developed a novel Schiff-base forming reaction, which provided a variety of aza-BODIPY analogues with unique absorption and emission in the visible and near infrared region. Application studies using these functional molecules as an organic photovoltaic material have also been conducted. In this account, the synthesis and structure-property relationship of these novel phtha- locyanine-based functional molecules are described.