Macrocyclic templates facilitating strong and weak interactions

Macrocyclic arene compounds have played a fundamental role in the development of supramolecular chemistry. Research on these systems have laid the foundations to explore and establish non-covalent interactions, e.g., hydrogen bonding, pi···pi stacking, C-H···pi interactions. My research group has taken the basic principles of macrocyclic arenes to design architectures enforcing metal - metal interactions towards the activation of small molecules, scaffolds capable of tubularly contorting aromatic systems, and frameworks able to bind anionic species for environmental remediation, all while retaining their intrinsic non-covalent interactions. In this seminar, I will discuss our progress in each of these areas constantly crossing the boundaries between organic-inorganic synthesis and materials chemistry.

Speaker: Raul Hernandez Sanchez, Rice University