The directional bonding paradigm parallels Nature's self-assembly strategy using hydrogen bonding, but takes advantage of the greater directionality and stronger bond strength of metal-ligand coordination. In combination with other weak interactions, such as pi-pi stacking, van der Waals and electrostatic forces, it allows for the assembly of two-dimensional and three-dimensional supramolecules with well defined shape and size of unprecedented variety and diversity. This project will take the directional bonding paradigm to the next level of complexity, incorporating carboranes, metal clusters, and liquid crystal forming units into supramolecular polygons and molecular cages, and will begin the exploration of the capabilities of these molecular cages to include guest molecules, including the fullerenes.
As chemists have grown increasingly sophisticated in their ability to construct molecules of considerable size and complexity, they have turned their attention to the possibility of "self-assembly" of large multi-molecular aggregates, in which smaller molecular building blocks spontaneously assemble into more elaborate materials with defined shape and structure. Professor Peter J. Stang, of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Utah, is supported by the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program for his studies of the self-assembly of nanoscale supramolecular assemblies through the use of coordination complexes of metals. Professor Stang has developed a general synthetic strategy for the construction of such assemblies, exploiting the defined geometries of metal coordination complexes to dictate the shape and structure of aggregates containing metal complexes as key building blocks. Through his studies, he is helping to define the power of self-assembly in the construction of unusual molecular architectures that may play central roles in the areas of nanoscale devices and molecular machinery. His research also serves as an effective vehicle for the education and technical training of undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students in the fundamentally and technologically important areas of chemical synthesis and supramolecular structure.
