Designing mixed-metal supramolecular complexes

Mixed-metal supramolecular complexes are of interest in that they link multiple structural components into a large supramolecular array. Each subunit is designed to perform a simple act and those acts combine together to give rise to more complicated device functions. By variation of the nature or type of components used and their structural position within the supramolecular assembly, the type of functioning of the molecular device can be controlled. Our molecular design uses transition metal polyazine light absorbers (LA) and couples them through bridging ligands (BL) to other metal centers of interest. These additional metals can function as bioactive sites (BAS), electron acceptors (EA) and electron collectors (EC). An overview of our work in this area will be described with a focus on how component modulation allows these systems to be applicable to a large array of problems of interest including multifunctional DNA binding agents and photochemical molecular devices for light energy conversion.