Au-Ru-Supramolecule – AURUS

The richness of the optical and electronic properties of polypyridyl metallic complexes, and even more specifically those containing ruthenium centres, make these molecular objects ideal candidates for the formation of multifunctional composite nanomaterials with a gold core. The organization, the ordering and the confinement of these molecular units at the surface of gold or silver nanoparticles will allow the combination of the electronic and optical properties of the gold or silver nanometric object with the ones of the molecular metallic complex. The aim of the project is to build nanocomposites formed by the grafting of polypyridyl metallic complexes onto the surface of metallic nanoparticles through fully conjugated linkers in order to exemplify and control the electronic transfer between the grafted metallic complexes and the nanoparticle. This study will be pursued by the grafting of the same metallic complexes onto gold 2D-surfaces. A major part of the project will be devoted to the understanding of the physico-chemical phenomena related to the interaction of the metallic complexes with the nanoparticle; an extension to other types of polypyridyl polymetallic complexes, linear or branched, will then be considered. This project will open up middle-term perspectives in a variety of application fields involving the optical and electronic properties of these NCs, such as electrochemiluminescence. Another exciting middle-term perspective is also anticipated with the interaction of these nanocomposites with attractive biological molecules (DNA).