Multifunctional coordination compounds: design and properties

Cleverly designed molecular building blocks provide chemists with the tools of a powerful molecular-scale construction set. They enable them to engine er materials that possess a predictable order and useful solid-state proper ties. Hence, it is in the realm of supramolecular chemistry to follow a str ategy for synthesizing materials which combine a selected set of properties , for instance from the areas of magnetism, photophysics and electronics. A s a possible approach, host/guest solids which are based on extended anioni c, homo- and bi-metallic oxalato-bridged transition-metal compounds with tw o- and three-dimensional connectivities are investigated. In particular, we report herein in detail about their structural properties and their multif unctional characteristics in the area of molecular magnetism and photophysi cs. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.