Playing with buckybowls

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Since the discovery of fullerenes, the bowl-shaped geodesic polyaromatic molecules that map the surface of C60 (1) have attracted considerable attention of the scientific community. These "fullerene fragments" or buckybowls represent an exciting new class of aromatic ligands that are expected to show novel and unique chemistry. The reactivity of buckybowls in metal coordination reactions is a brand new area of organometallic research. We have recently prepared the first crystalline complexes of the smallest bowl-shaped aromatic hydrocarbon, corannulene C20H10. Currently large buckybowls, such as C30H12 that represents the symmetrical half of C60, are under investigation in our laboratory.

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Single Molecule Magnets

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Over the recent decades scientists and engineers from various disciplines have converged to develop discrete molecules that possess energy barriers to reorientation of their molecular spins that are large enough to observe magnetic hysteresis. These molecules, termed “single-molecule magnets” (SMMs), exhibit magnetic properties similar to those of conventional, bulk magnets, however, these properties propagate on the molecular level. Interestingly, this implies that the spin of individual molecules can be manipulated to produce molecular-scale, switchable devices, with clear applications in technologies such as spintronics, quantum computing, and high-density data storage. One particularly promising subset of SMMs are those that incorporate the 4f-elements, or lanthanides (Ln). Recent research has proven the high performance potential of Ln-based SMMs, and is widely believed to result from the high-spin ground states and very large magnetic anisotropy that are inherent to Ln ions. With this in mind, our group has focused our attention on furthering the fundamental understanding of the physical properties of Ln-based SMMs through synthesis and studying the correlation between structure and magnetism.

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Solventless Synthesis as an Alternative Approach to Perform Chemical Reactions

 

We have recently introduced a novel micro-scale synthetic approach that is based on the co-deposition of complementary building blocks in a solvent-free environment. We have proved it to be a very effective and economical route as it affords crystalline products in one step, excludes solvents from reactions, requires very small amounts of starting materials, and allows one to control the stoichiometry of the products. We apply this technique to prepare new hybrid inorganic materials (1) to trap reactive intermediates (2) and to test reactivity of new ligands of natural and synthetic origin.(3) We believe this unique technique holds great potential and merits further development.

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Synthesis and Optical Properties of Quantum Dots

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Colloidal semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are nanoparticles or nanocrystals of less than 10-15 nm in diameter. The high surface/volume ratio of QDs results in unique optical and electronic properties that are intermediate between single molecules and bulk solid-state. The strong size- and shape-dependency of QDs properties makes them ideal candidates for optical devices, biological tagging materials, photovoltaics and lasers. One of the most common methods of synthesis of colloidal QDs is chemical attachment of various ligands to the surface atoms of the nanocrystals. This chemical modification of the QD surface allows us to control aggregation, to tune solubility, to anchor QDs into various solid supports for further study and practical usage.

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