Nanosized molecular materials, structured by self-organization, have raised much interest because of their unique properties and their potential applications. For such materials, functional qualities such as optoelectric, magnetic or catalytic properties can be introduced by transition metals, while the self-organization can be in induced by mesogenic ligands.

We propose to synthesize nanostructured molecular architectures that contain tri- and tetra¬nuclear ruthenium cluster cores and arene ligands with dendritic side-chains as well as metallic ruthenium nanoparticles stabilized in nematic, smectic or cholesteric phases. We intend to study the mesophase transitions, the self-organisation phenomena as well as the optoelectric, magnetic and catalytic properties of these new materials.

This project intends to combine forces in the fields of organic synthesis, organometallic coordination and self-organization in order to design nanostructured molecules and mesogen-stabilized metallic nanoparticles that are mesomorphic and exhibit interesting physical properties.