From Simple Molecules to Molecular Functional Materials and Nanoscience

Abstract

The rational design and synthesis of molecular and nano-scale materials have attracted growing attention in recent years owing to their enormous and unpredictable potentials in molecular devices and machineries, and nanoscopic sciences. Apart from the design of the discrete molecules and an understanding of the structure-property relationships based on the molecules themselves, an exploration of the work beyond the molecular level towards the supramolecular and nanoscopic scale would represent challenging areas of research. By combining the advantages of high synthetic versatility and easy processibility in the molecular properties, together with an understanding of the structure-property relationship established, molecular functional materials could be readily prepared by the approach of “function by design”. Moreover, it would also be interesting to study how the properties in the bulk might be related to those at the nano and molecular level and whether some insights could be provided through a structureproperty relationship study. All these would be beneficial to the future design of functional materials in the area of nanoscience and materials. In this report, the design and synthesis of a number of transition metal complex molecules including Cu(I), Ag(I), Au(I), Au(III), Re(I), Pt(II) and Ru(II) have been described. All the complexes have been found to exhibit strong luminescence. Their fundamental photophysical properties including electronic absorption and luminescence behaviors have been studied and their spectroscopic origins have been elucidated. Through rational design, judicious functionalization and assembly strategies, some of these metal complexes could find potential applications as various molecular functional materials, and as templates for the preparation of nano-sized materials.