Yes, light-harvesting molecules are interesting not only from a fundamental chemistry point of view but also attract attention for practical applications in, e.g., organic LED, sensors, photodynamic therapy, solar cells, and so on.

The paper highlights research topics on the development of molecular systems that allow efficient absorption of visible light and utilization of its energy. This is a highly important subject for the development of solar energy conversion systems and electronic devices powered by visible light. The paper features recent developments of dye-appended "tree-like molecules" called "dendrimers" and places an emphasis on the specific functions of molecularly engineered dendrimers for harvesting of visible photons and collecting their excitation energy to the focal core.

We are one of the first groups to notice the unique light-harvesting function of dendritic molecules. The discovery was just serendipitous, and was made in the course of our studies on molecular design and the utilization of biomimetic dendrimers such as hemoprotein-like dendrimers.