This is the second volume in the two-volume textbook, Functional Soft Matter, written for students and early-career researchers studying the scientific foundations of functional soft matter. The first volume, Functional Soft Matter I: Basic Principles, focuses on fundamentals; this second volume presents analytical methods and recent topics.

The book comprises two parts. The first part presents analytical methods for structural, interfacial, electrochemical, optical, and electronic properties of functional soft matter, as well as simulation approaches. It is aimed at graduate students and young researchers conducting research in this field, who will acquire a range of techniques for analyzing functional soft matter. The second part introduces recent research topics in functional soft matter science and engineering, providing insights into current trends.

Masahiro Funahashi studied organic synthetic chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Koichi Narasaka in the University of Tokyo. He was appointed to a research associate of the group of Prof. Jun-ichi Hanna in Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1994 and obtained a Ph.D. degree in 1999. He moved to the Nanotechnology Research Institute of AIST in 2005 and worked as a researcher in the group of Prof. Nobuyuki Tamaoki. He was appointed to an associate professor of the group of Prof. Takashi Kato in the University of Tokyo in 2007. He promoted to a full professor of Kagawa University in 2010. From 2017, he was invited to be a guest researcher of the Health and Medical Research Institute, AIST. Since 2024, he has been a full professor of  Kobe University. He received SPSJ Hitachi Kasei Award 2009 from the Society of Polymer Science, Japan. He also received the JLCS Best Paper Award four times from the Japanese Liquid Crystal Society.