Research Overview
Crystal engineeringSince I came to Nottingham, I've been investigating multimodal and other multidentate ligands. The concept of multimodal ligands was formulated by N. R. Champness in the year 2000.1,2 Since that time many publications concerning multimodal have been published by Champness and other research groups. However it has been found that even if the ligands form really interesting structures, the probability to predict resulting structure is very low. |
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View of the QPYE ligand and its binding modes | View of binuclear species [L2M2]2+ | View of hexanuclear species [L6M6(X)]5+ species. This structure corresponds to L6Ag6(SbF6)]5+. The two fragments are twisted to accommodate the counteranion and highlighted in yellow. |
See also: A movie illustrating the cage; a movie showing π-π interactions between cages in solid state.
The MolDraw Applet illustrating cages.
The coordination chemistry of the tetradentate thiophene based ligand TPT is another successful story of my research. Reactions of TPT with Ag(I) and Cu(I) salts leads to the formation of extended structures. Complexes formed by AgX (X=BF4-, SbF6-, PF6- and TfO-) and CuBF4 are isostructural and possess a zeolite-like framework with large pores. Thus the network consists of big (10x14Å), medium (18x7Å) octagonal and small (8x5Å) tetragonal pores.
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View of the TPT ligand | View of the overall framework. The pores are filled with the counteranions. | View of the topological framework. The silver node is shown in purple, ligand node - in black. |
The construction of topological network and topological
analysis of the structure were performed using OLEX. The networks is constructed
of two distinct 4-connected nodes (heterogenic network). The nodes have
the same short vertex symbol (4284 ) but different
long one which is 4482828888
for the ligand node and 4487878787
for the silver node.
See also the MolDraw Applet
illustrating the structure.
By the time I came to Nottingham, I had a wide range of experience in computer programming. I started programming when I was fifteen and computer became my best friends since I touched the keyboard for the first time. Since that time I have produced plenty of useless programs and applications, only to gain experience and learning. Programming for Windows® came to me when the third version of Borland® C++ Builder came out. It was not new for the world, but for me it was challenging and absorbing. That time I was using programming as a tool for solving simple tasks for my academic studies. The real challenges appeared only when I started working as a free-lance software tester and as a programmer later. I sold my first software for $50 only!!!!; the next one was sold for $400 and allowed me to get a temporary position which I kept to get some extra income until I came to Nottingham.
I came to Nottingham in the end of January of 2001 with a purpose to do PhD in chemistry under the supervision of Dr Neil R. Champness and Prof Martin Schröder. I spent a few months to get an appropriate skills English. And soon after I passed an English exam I started working on my project.
1. Blake, A.J., et al., Multi-modal bridging ligands; effect of ligand
functionality, anion and crystallisation solvent in silver(I) co-ordination
polymers. J. Chem. Soc., Dalton Trans., 2000: p. 3811-3819.
2. Blake, A.J., et al., Synthesis of a chiral adamantoid network - the role of
solvent in the construction of new coordination networks with silver (I).
Chemical Communications, 2000: p. 665-666.
3. Dolomanov, O.V., et al., A novel synthetic strategy for hexanuclear
supramolecular architectures. Chem. Commun., 2003: p. 682-683.
4. Dolomanov, O.V., et al., A design strategy for four-connected coordination
frameworks. Chem. Commun., 2004: in press.
©
Oleg V. Dolomanov, 2003
Last Updated 2003.12.07