Light on Molecular Devices

Abstract

What is your research focus?We are interested in the bottom-up design,c onstruction and investigation of chemical systems, encompassing molecules, supramolecular systems, and nanostructured materials,t hat behavei na ni nteresting, potentially useful manner in response to externals timuli. In this context, light is am ost attractive stimulus because it can be used both to "write" and "read" matter,i tc an be finely tuned in energy,t ime and space domains,a nd it can cause clean reactions. Ak ey objective of our activity is the development of light-driven molecular switches, machines, and motors. These studies are focusedo nf undamental science, and are motivated by the search for innovative solutionstopractical problemsinc hemosensing, molecular delivery,catalysis, energy conversion and storage, and mechanical actuation atd ifferent length scales.In the recent past we have described examples of (supra)molecular switches, logic devices, machines and motors (see for instance the supramolecular pump shown in Figure 1), [1][2][3][4] as well as nanoparticles and porousm aterials endowed with light-activated functions. [5][6][7] In our research activity,w hich is supported in part by the European Research Council (https:// site.unibo.it/leaps), we takea dvantage of the full range of processes offered by molecular and supramolecular photophysics and photochemistry,w ith particularr egardt ol uminescence, photoinduced energy-, electron-and proton-transferp rocesses, and photoisomerization reactions.