The goal of our research is to create new, useful solid or polymeric materials through use of organic, inorganic and supramolecular synthesis especially using techniques developed through crystal engineering. These new materials will provide a foundation for systematic structure-property studies, initially focusing on: electroactive polymers, catalysis, chiral separations, magnetic solids. Projects will utilize common synthetic routes and methods of characterization in solution and the solid state.

We have demonstrated that, despite the competing intermolecular forces that exist in solutions of coordination complexes, hydrogen-bonding substituents on ligands may be used to predictably assemble coordination complexes. We can control the solid-state assembly of inorganic/organic hybrid materials either by changing the metal ion (thus the preferred coordination geometry) or by synthesizing ligands with hydrogen bonding substituents. For example, the figure above shows that square planar Pt(II)(isonicotinic acid)2(isonicotinate)2 complexes are linked through carboxylic acid-carboxylate OH---O hydrogen bonds to form a square grid in the solid state.

Why crystalline solids? It is important to note that crystalline solids can, in some cases, be uniquely useful materials. By definition, single crystals are ordered, which means that structure-function (e.g. electronic or magnetic behavior) relationships can be determined by measuring the effect of systematic changes in the components of the crystal. In addition, channels or cavities organized in crystalline solids have equivalent environments, therefore the relative orientations of guest ions, molecules, or reactants are also constant, which is essential for: 1) uniform signaling in chemical sensors, 2) asymmetric catalysis, 3) stereochemically controlled solid state reactivity.