Preface

Supramolecular chemistry and crystal engineering are two extremely well known, as well as relevant, subjects in modern day science. Supramolecular materials have great potential in materials science, as the reversibility of intermolecular interactions can create new functions that are unavailable in covalently bonded materials. This book highlights multiple aspects of structure and function in organic as well as metal organic supramolecular materials. It also highlights the chemical functions of supramolecular materials. The chapters of this book will provide an overview of organic and metal organic supramolecular materials (from surfaces to MOFs) and their assembly at various length scales (including the formation of 2D-polymers and molecular cages) and how this determines their usage for novel applications in molecular recognition, catalysis, light harvesting and environmental remediation. This book will also provide an idea about the role of intermolecular interactions in the solid state and solution state supramolecular self-assembly. Another highlight of this book will be the role of chemical bonding on the molecular and supramolecular architectures.

This book consists of 12 chapters that have been contributed by leading experts in the field of structural chemistry, covering the areas of surface self-assembly, soft supramolecular materials, supramolecular receptors, electron transfer reactions, morphology control and solid-state photo-reactivity, new devices with tunable electrical and optical properties, bio-materials, supramolecular polyhedral capsules and cages and metal organic frameworks. As the development of new materials is key to the continuous improvement of the performance of organic and metal organic supramolecular materials, a significant portion of this book have been dedicated to discussing the design concept and synthesis of novel organic and metal organic supramolecular materials for diverse applications.

Champness and Yang describe how intermolecular interactions can be exploited to control molecular organisation on surfaces, demonstrating the use of hydrogen bonds, van der Waals interactions, metal–ligand coordination and covalent coupling to construct low-dimensional structures on surfaces. The idea behind the design of soft supramolecular materials using intermolecular interactions and guest binding within the supramolecular capsular assemblies are covered in detail by Dastidar and co-workers and Ghosh et al. in Chapters 2 and 3 respectively. Photochemistry features heavily in the next two chapters by Mukhopadhyay et al., and Quah and Vittal on supramolecular materials for electron transfer reactions and photo-reactivity in solid-state supramolecular materials. Nidamanuri and Saha in Chapter 6 and D'Alessandro et al. in Chapter 7 describe framework materials for electrical, optical and photoconduction. Ma et al. in Chapter 8 describe the structure-based evolution of porous biomaterials. Comparing and contrasting the controlled release from these porous biomaterials is an area of active debate. This aspect of “Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Porosity” has been discussed by Green and Lloyd in Chapter 9. Research on metal organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs) continues to evolve rapidly and has recently seen new applications in areas such as storage and separation, conduction and catalysis. In the last three chapters of this book, Clegg et al., Arab and El-Kaderi and Maji et al. discuss many new examples from their own research and the literature.

I would like to thank Professor Jonathan W. Steed and Professor Philip Gale for their invitation to contemplate a book project on the topic of “Functional Supramolecular Materials: From Surface to MOFs” for the Royal Society of Chemistry series Monographs in Supramolecular Chemistry, and Rowan Frame, Katie Morrey, Rachel Wood and Harriet Manning at the Royal Society of Chemistry for their support throughout the production of the book. I sincerely thank all the authors of the chapters for their time and sincere efforts as well as their commitment to this project. I sincerely hope that this book will be of interest among undergraduate and graduate students, research scholars, academicians (including technical service providers) and industrial chemists interested in supramolecular chemistry and materials science.

I dedicate this book to Professor Gautam R. Desiraju on the occasion of his 65th birthday.

Rahul Banerjee

CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory

India