Development of New Supramolecular Systems

Abstract

The development of new supramolecular systems is proposed, based on the use of porphyrins, phthalocyanines, clusters, polypyrazines and polyimine complexes as molecular building blocks. The supramolecular assembly leads to highly organized structures, particularly interesting for electrocatalysis and multielectronic electron transfer, as well as, for photocurrent production via excitation at the charge-transfer bands. Characterization of the supramolecular species is performed in solid state and in solution, by means of electronic, vibrational, resonance Raman, NMR and EPR spectroscopy, electrochemistry, spectroelectrochemistry, stopped-flow kinetics and flash-photolysis, in addition to computational and molecular simulation work. Extending the molecular design approach, it is exploited the application of the systems in electronic devices such as chemical sensors, modified electrodes, optodes and photoelectrochemical cells. For this particular purpose, the development of molecular interfaces is strongly pursued, involving the formation of thin films, imobilization onto functionalized surfaces or intercalation into conducting films. Research on molecular devices is carried out in collaboration with the laboratories of electronics and biosensors at the University of São Paulo. (AU)