Acad. Prof. Marius Andruh

From Homometallic to Heterotrimetallic Coordination Polymers.
A Synthetic Challenge and Their Beautiful Properties

Marius Andruh
Chair of the Inorganic Chemistry Department and Professor, University of Bucharest,
Faculty of Chemistry
Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory
23 Dumbrava Rosie Street, Bucharest, Romania
Abstract: Crystal engineering of coordination polymers represents one of the most fascinating fields in modern chemistry. It encompasses both inorganic and organic synthesis. The metal ions, through their stereochemical and electronic predilections, play a key role in controlling the assembly of the molecular components into well-defined architectures.1 The ultimate goal of crystal engineering is to design solids with technologically useful functionalities (molecular magnetic materials, conducting solids, zeolite-like materials, catalysts, luminescent materials, etc.). Originating from Robson’s seminal papers published in 1990,2 the node-and-spacer approach became a largely employed strategy for the construction of a rich variety of coordination polymers. It relies upon the strong directionality of the coordination bonds established between the metal ions (nodes, connectors) and the exo-dentate ligands (spacers, linkers).

We enlarged the classical node-and-spacer approach employing homo-and heterometallic complexes as nodes.1,3 Several families of such compounds synthesized recently in our Laboratory will be presented in this lecture.4

Keywords: crystal engineering, coordination polymers, solid design, node-and-spacer approach, strong directionality, homo-and-heterometallic complexes

References:

1. M. Andruh, Chem. Commun., 2007, 2565; (b) M. Andruh, Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 3025; (c) M. Andruh, Chimia, 2013, 67, 383; M. Andruh, Pure Appl. Chem., 2005, 77, 1685.

2. (a) R. W. Gable, B. F. Hoskins, R. Robson, J. Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun., 1990, 1677.

3. (a) M. Andruh, D. G. Branzea, R. Gheorghe, A. M. Madalan, CrystEngComm., 2009, 11, 2571;

4. (a) M.-G. Alexandru, D. Visinescu, M. Andruh, N. Marino, D. Armentano, J. Cano, F. Lloret, M. Julve, Chem.-Eur. J., 2015, 21, 5429; (b) A. E. Ion, S. Nica, A. M. Madalan, C. Maxim, M. Julve, F. Lloret, M. Andruh, CrystEngComm., 2014, 16, 318;(c) C. Paraschiv, A. Cucos, S. Shova, A. M. Madalan, C. Maxim, D. Visinescu, B. Cojocaru, V. I. Parvulescu, M. Andruh, Cryst Growth & Des., 2015, 15, 799.
Marius Andruh is Chair of the Inorganic Chemistry Department at the University of Bucharest and Professor in Coordination Chemistry. His major research interests are focused on metallosupramolecular chemistry, molecular magnetism and crystal engineering. He is a member of the Romanian Academy (2001), of the Academia Europaea (2004), and of the European Academy of Sciences (2010). He was a visiting Professor at several Universities (Bordeaux, Göttingen, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Angers, Manchester, Brno, Jena, Paris, Valencia, Niteroi-Rio de Janeiro). Professor Andruh published 260 papers, which collected more than 6900 citations (h-index = 41).