Themed collection Molecular metal-containing soft materials

Welcome to this themed issue of Dalton Transactions entitled “Molecular metal-containing soft materials”.

The state-of-the-art of metallorganic-based molecular rectification is reviewed with an emphasis on asymmetric five-coordinate Fe^III-containing surfactants in electrode|LB film|electrode assemblies.

Recent accomplishments in the syntheses of Au nanoparticles and nanocluster supported on carbon materials and applications to electroxidation are reviewed.

This Perspective highlights relationships between chemical features of metal bis(acetylide) complexes and their electrical response in a molecular junction.

This Frontier illustrates a brief personal account on the effect of heme–heme interactions in dihemes which thereby discloses some of the evolutionary design principles involved in multiheme proteins for their diverse structures and functions.

A europium-based metallosupramolecular polymer is reported that exhibits changes of the luminescence colour in response to different types of analytes.

Fabrication of 3-dimensional MOF thin films has been investigated through the conversion of ZnO thin film via a pure vapour–solid deposition reaction at ambient pressure.

Double layer Zn–UDP coordination polymers with potentially open sites can be used for heterogeneous fluorescent sensors of amino acids.

Diazepinoporphyrazines as optical signaling agents.

We report the synthesis of new liquid crystalline thiophene esters, ThBz1 and ThBz2, for use in lithium-ion batteries as new, safe, solvent-free ionic conductors.

A new bimetallic iron hydrophobe, [Fe^III₂(L^N4O6)] (1) forms well-defined films used for current–voltage measurements and shows unquestionable molecular rectification.

Crown ethers and their derivatives are versatile building blocks for the design of supramolecular materials.

Two multifunctional, ether-bridged tricarboxylic acids were used as unexplored and highly versatile building blocks for the hydrothermal generation of eight new cadmium(II) metal–organic architectures.

Small-angle neutron scattering and contrast variation has been employed to quantify how a series of alcohols with increasing hydrophobicity exert different abilities to structure a model toluene based metallomicroemulsion – a microemulsion system stabilised with a metallosurfactant.

Lanthanide extraction selectivity is attained by variation of the ligand structure and extraction conditions for a series of CMPO-based ligands.

Stereocontrolled self-assembly of a dinuclear triple-stranded europium helicate (Eu₂L₃) based on DTE-functionalized ligands has been achieved via the chiral-induction strategy.

New photo-CORM metallosomes with low cell toxicity were prepared from organometallic metallosurfactants and phospholipids.

Highly soluble diruthenium(II) organometallic molecular wires with thienylethynyl π-conjugated bridges have been synthesized by varying the chain length to access long-range electronic communication.

UV/vis, NMR and SANS (right) demonstrate self-assembly of Zn porphyrin hexamers (green) with bidentate DABCO (orange) into cylindrical rods (left).

Zinc(II) and platinum(II) complexes [M(X-4-C₁₈-salmmen)] (M = Zn (1) and Pt (2), X = R, S (optical isomer) and rac (racemate), salmmen = N,N′-monomethylenebis-salicylideneimine) were synthesized and investigated.

Selective extraction of semiconducting SWNT via entangled surface modification by H-bonded metallo-supramolecular polymer was achieved.

The cellular distribution of amphiphilic rhenium(I) complexes is tuned by the nature of the axial donor.

Light-emitting electrochemical cells with Cu(I) emitters with halo-substituted 2,2′-bipyridine ligands display orange electroluminescence and short turn-on times.

Dimetallo-cages connected with dialkylammonium salts via host–guest interactions resulted in thermodynamic polymer metallo-gels.

We report on the characterization of two imine type ligands containing photoresponsive azobenzene units as side groups and their transition metal ions complexes.

Two pairs of isomorphic chiral twofold interpenetrated 3-D nets were built from I¹O² type hybrid inorganic–organic frameworks and show dual emissions and thermochromism.

An iron metallosurfactant in Langmuir–Blodgett films undergoes reduction which is accompanied by pronounced structural rearrangements of the adsorbed molecule.

New insight into the molecular fission–fusion process is obtained with the characterization of a stable intermediate prismatic cage.

The dispersion of metal–organic polyhedra into polymer thin-films exploits the host/guest capabilities of the former and the processability of the latter.

Electrostatic self-assemblies based on SPBs and Gd-DTPA-NO-C₄ exhibit perfect relaxometric performance.

A novel soft salt based photosensitizer was successfully developed for application in photodynamic therapy of cancer cells for the first time.