Research Activities

Functional metal complexes have a broad range of applications in luminescent and light-harvesting materials, molecular magnets and conductors. To fully harness their potential, it is essential to acquire a fundamental understanding of their electronic structures, develop a controllable approach to guide their self-assembly process, and thoroughly explore their physical properties and functionalities. My research activities align closely with these three objectives and includes the study of:

(1) an in-depth theoretical understanding of the electronic structures of metal complexes.

(2) the development of a synthetic supramolecular approach to regulate the self-assembly behaviors of metal complexes.

(3) the functionality exploration based on d- and f-block metal complexes, ranging from photonics to magnetism and conductivities.

Future Goal

(A) Strongly Correlated Molecular Material

Strongly correlated systems refer to electronic structures where individual electrons have a significant impact on their neighboring electrons, rather than being described with the conventional single-electron picture. Research on strong electron correlation has been hot spots in Condensed Matter Physics for decades. This research includes a wide range of materials such as various transition metal oxides, Mott-Hubbard (MH) and Charge Density Wave (CDW) insulators, spin Peierls and spin liquid materials, quasi-low-dimensional materials, and so on. They exhibit unusual electronic and magnetic properties, such as metal-insulator transitions and high superconducting transition temperature, making them valuable for both fundamental research and potential applications. In contrast, strongly correlated molecular systems have received less attention in Chemistry. Organic strongly correlated systems, as compared to their inorganic counterparts, have a lower carrier density and a softer lattice, which makes them highly controllable in terms of bandwidth and bandfilling.
One research goal in our group aims to explore new strongly correlated materials composed by organic or molecular systems, which may exhibit unique or unexpected physical properties compared to their inorganic counterpart materials.

Physical Properties of TTF-based systems

Physical Properties of MX chains

(B) Supramolecular Self-assembly

Controlling the self-assembly process of small molecules is important in the synthesis and preparation of functional molecular materials at the supramolecular level. The molecular assemblies, which are bonded by non-covalent interactions, can show distinctive optical, electrical, and magnetic properties compared to the discrete molecules. The self-assembly process can be effectively guided through the presence of multiple non-covalent interactions with cooperativity.

The kinetic control over supramolecular self-assembly process is ubiquitous in the synthesis of biological structures, and has been found to be a powerful tool in preparing highly ordered artificial nanostructures with tailored and specific functions. Seeded or living supramolecular polymerization can be achieved by manipulating the kinetic aggregation state, leading to the formation of supramolecular block heterostructures with controllable sequence, dimension and shape. One goal in our group aims to explore new supramolecular synthetic strategy to control the self-assembly process of metal complexes.

The highest bond order for a covalent chemical bond discovered so far is five, which has been observed in dimeric organometallic complexes like Cr and Mo in 2005. In these dimeric complexes, two metal atoms share five electron pairs in five bonding molecular orbitals, including one σ bond, two π bonds and two δ bonds.

One goal in our group aims to explore new metal-metal multiple bond systems, which may exhibit unexpected physical properties based on their unique electronic structures.