Research

Photo- and thermoswitchable coordination compounds    Coordination polymers and Metal organic frameworks     Spin crossover phenomena    Molecular switches, molecular bistability     Organic solid state chemistry and crystal engineering    Dynamic phenomena and phase transitions in the solid state

Our international team is busy with several research area of advanced inorganic chemistry that are listed below: 

Bistable molecular magnetic materials exhibiting cooperative spin transitions in view of their potential practical applications (display and data processing, sensors, ...).

    
•   Design and set up of new routes for the organic synthesis of azole based molecules.

•   Syntheses and characterization of supramolecular azole based polynuclear systems.

•   Structural, magnetic, optical and calorimetric investigation of these systems by relevant physical methods (XRD, Mössbauer, DSC, magnetometry, diffuse reflectance …).

•   Preparation of thin films and nanostructuration. 

Crystal engineering of supramolecular functional coordination networks

  
•   Coordination polymers, metal organic frameworks.

•   Hybrid magnetic materials with multifunctional properties (luminescence, photochromism, porosity ...). 

Switchable coordination compounds

  
•   Design, syntheses and crystal engineering of new molecular switches (salicylidene anilines, diarylethene derivatives, ...).

•   Investigation of their optical (fluorescence, photochromism, thermochromism) and structural properties.

•   Syntheses of polynuclear coordination compounds including bistable molecular switches.

•   Investigation of their optical and magnetic properties (fluorescence, photochromism, photomagnetism).

 Investigation of magnetic molecular materials by muon spin relaxation (in collaboration with Dr. James S. Lord, ISIS, UK and Prof. Dr. Stewart J. Campbell, ADFA, Australia) and ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy  

•   Tracking of electronic spin crossovers in transition metal complexes.     

•   Study of dynamic processes in the solid state.