Muralee Murugesu1
University of Ottawa1
Molecular cluster-aggregates based on lanthanides comes in various nuclearities (up to 140 metal ions) and size (up to 6 nm). The size and nuclearity of these molecular spices can be tuned by a rational choice of the precursor materials. Thus, in terms of size, they exist in the rarely explored region that lies between small molecules and nanoparticles while offering high uniformity. In other words, this approach represents the meeting of the bottom-up as well as a top-down approach in a molecular unit. As such, we envision to grasp the performance and fine-tunability of nanoparticles while retaining the precise size control and distribution of molecular systems in a single molecular cluster-aggregate. As such, we anticipate taking advantage of these attributes to tap into their magnetic, luminescent and other physical properties.