1630 - 1710 Vivian W W Yam

Design and Assembly Strategies Towards Photofunctional Metal-Based Molecular Materials.

Recent works in our laboratory have shown that novel photofunctional metal-based molecular materials could be assembled through the use of various metal-ligand building blocks. In this presentation, various design and synthetic strategies together with the successful isolation of new classes of transition metal complexes ofselected metalswill be described. A number of these complexes have been structurally characterized and shown to display rich luminescence behavior and interesting photofunctional properties. The luminescence properties have been studied and their emissive origins elucidated. Correlations of the luminescence behavior with the electronic and structural effects of the metal complexes have also been made. Different approaches and assembly motifs have been employed to tune the absorption and emission characteristics of these materials. Extension of the work has been made to incorporate these metal complexes into polymers and organogels. The electronic absorption and luminescence properties of some of these metal complexes have been found to be sensitive to changes in the temperature and subtle changes in the microenvironment. Through rational design and assembly strategies based on various coordination motifs or supramolecular non-covalent metallophilic and p-pinteractions as well as an understanding of the spectroscopic origin and the structure-property relationships, the characteristics of these complexes could be fine-tuned for specific applications and functions. These photofunctional metal-based molecular materials may find potential applications and functions as triplet molecular light-emitting materials, and as colorimetric and luminescence reporters of microenvironmental changes. Various approaches and strategies to design novel classes of molecular materials that may find potential applications and functions as photoresponsive molecular switches and optical memories will also be described.