Luminescent Gold-Containing Molecular Photofunctional Materials

Abstract

Recent works in our laboratory have demonstratedthat novel luminescent metal-based molecular materials could be assembled fromvarious metal-ligand building blocks. In particular, the rich luminescence properties displayed by a number of gold complexes, with some of them associated with their strong tendency to form aggregates owing to theaurophilic nature of gold, have aroused our interests in the exploration of supramolecularphotofunctional materialsbased on gold complexes.In this presentation, various design and synthetic strategies together with the successful isolation of new classes of mono-, di-and polynuclear gold complexesand their supramolecular assemblieswill be described. A number of these complexes have been structurally characterized and shown to display rich luminescenceproperties.Correlations of the luminescence behavior with the electronic and structural effects of the metal complexes have also beenmade.With a thoroughunderstanding ofthe spectroscopic origin and the structure-property relationshipsof the gold-containing metal complexes,the characteristics of these complexes could be fine-tuned for specific applications and functions through rational design and syntheticstrategies, and may find potential applications and functions as supramolecularassemblies, triplet light-emitting materials, and luminescence signalling probes.