Electrochemistry of coordination compounds: an extended view

Nowadays coordination chemistry has merged into the big field of supramolec ular chemistry. In this paper we illustrate specific examples concerning an alogies between the electrochemical behaviour of mononuclear metal complexe s and supramolecular species containing metal complexes as component units. This similarity is extended to apparently very different systems, such as pseudorotaxanes, rotaxanes and catenanes not containing metal ions. In some cases the described compounds undergo electrochemically induced molecular movements and can be considered as: prototypes of molecular-level machines. The importance of electrochemistry as a tool for obtaining information on the structure of the supramolecular system and as:an energy input to induce mechanical movements at the molecular level is outlined. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.