New frontiers in coordination chemistry: designing molecules and coordination polymer materials with novel properties

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This coordination chemistry research program targets the synthesis, properties and applications of metal-containing molecules, focusing on (a) metal-containing coordination polymers (CP) as advanced materials and (b) transition-metal and actinide compounds with unpaired electrons. At the heart of these studies is the requirement to understand how to control structure, properties and reactivity of metal complexes and CP via the choice of metals and supporting ligands. For example, the ability to control 3-D supramolecular structures is essential to designing materials with useful birefringent, porous or magnetic properties, and hence the questions of how to selectively generate CP with a particular composition, shape or topology are critically important. Developing new magnetic materials also requires an understanding of fundamental magnetic interactions. Determining the factors stabilizing different metal spin and oxidation states and how these influence the reactivity of metal compounds with unpaired electrons is necessary in order to design molecules as catalysts for a range of chemical processes.