Reports: SE
49366-SE Multimetallic Complexes: New Molecules and Materials, at the 92nd Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition, May-June 2009, Hamilton, ON
The symposium was featured in the Inorganic Division of the 92nd Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition held in Hamilton, Ontario from May 30 – June 4, 2009. Thirty speakers from across Canada and the USA, as well as France, the UK, and Germany presented their latest findings in the field of multi-metallic complexes and materials. This field is attracting a surging research effort, particularly in the self-assembly area, and provides a gateway to the development of sophisticated catalysts, systems capable of specific molecular recognition, molecular machines, molecular devices and single molecule magnets. Many of the speakers highlighted their recent efforts to develop molecular magnets using multimetallic complexes. For example, Professor Thorsten Glaser from Bielefeld University (supported by ACS PRF) presented his latest results on trimetallic complexes formed from novel trisalen ligands. Professor Annie Powell from Karlsruhe University (supported by ACS PRF) presented her latest findings on the incorporation of both 3d and 4f (lanthanide) metals into multimetallic complexes as a route to new magnetic materials. Several of the other talks emphasized novel magnetic properties, but also catalysis and supramolecular chemistry were discussed.
The symposium was very well attended, with many of the talks attracting 50-100 people. Professor Hanadi Sleiman’s award lecture about using DNA to build sophisticated multimetallic architectures was attended by nearly 250 people. Many of the speakers and other attendees forged relationships and discussed future collaborations.
Graduate students were an important part of the symposium. In addition to those students that attended the talks, several of the speakers were graduate students from Canada, the USA, and even from the UK. Michael Katz, a PhD student from Simon Fraser University who is the recipient of the 2009 Inorganic Chemistry Division Award for Graduate Work in Inorganic Chemistry, delivered a stirring lecture on the development of polymetallic materials that have very large optical birefringence. Using gold-gold bonding in the structures, he has developed some materials that are among the most birefringent ever discovered, and promising for developing optical switches and related applications.
The ACS PRF award was critical to organizing a successful, interdisciplinary symposium. With funding from the grant, we were able to assist the following speakers with their travel to attend the conference: Thorsten Glaser (Bielefeld University, Germany); Yves Journaux (University of Pierre and Marie Curie, France); Richard Winpenny (Manchester, UK); Philipp Guetlich (University of Mainz, Germany); Annie Powell (Karlsruhe University, Germany); and Rudolphe Clérac (CNRS, Bordeaux, France). By attracting these world-class researchers, we were able to attract many prominent speakers from North America that would not otherwise have attended.
