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The first NATO Science Forum was held in Biarritz in September
1990. This Taormina Conference is the second in a series that we
wish to be a long one and I believe that it has equalled the
success of its predecessor. In setting up these meetings the NATO
Science Committee wanted to gather leading experts to review fields
of strong present interest. It was intended that presentations and
discussions should pay special attention to potential developments.
This "forward look" is indeed precious to us in mapping out the
evolution of our Science Programme but more importantly, it is an
essential part of the progress of Science. I believe that NATO,
being able to bring together eminent scientists from both sides of
the Atlantic, is in a priviliged position to provide this service
to our Scientific Community. It was only proper that Chemistry
should be one of the first areas to be targeted: a central science
with many rich borders touching on other disciplines, it deserved
the full attention of our Committee. In its vast domain, among many
possible topics, the present one was carefully selected and its
choice resulted from an extensive consultation of many leading
chemists. The large fraction of replies which pointed to
Supramolecular Chemistry left us with little doubt about the
timeliness of a Forum in this area and the strong interest attached
to it.
The intellectual and utilitarian opportunities that lie at the
frontiers of chemistry have been recently emphasized by the
Pimentel Report. Such report recommends that in the field of
chemical research priority should be given to "understanding
chemical reactivity" and proposes initiatives aimed at the
clarification of factors that control the rates of reaction and the
development of new synthetic pathways for chemical change. In the
broad field of chemical reactivity, a discipline that has grown
with an extraordinary rate is photochemistry. Since the knowledge
of the photochemical properties at the molecular level has made a
substantial progress in the last few years, there is currently a
trend to study more and more complex photochemical systems. In
particular, an emerging and rapidly expanding branch of
photochemistry is that concerning studies of assemblies of
molecular components properly combined so as to obtain
light-induced functions (supramolecular photochemistry). Although
much of the current work in supramolecular photochemistry is
fundamental in nature, it is clear that progress in this field will
be most rewarding for several applications concerning the
interaction of light with matter. In particular, it will allow us
to pursue research aimed at the photochemical conversion of solar
energy by means of artificial systems and to make progress towards
futuristic branches of science called "photonics" (photo-generated
electron migration processes on a molecular basis) and "chemionics"
(design of components, circuitry, and information treatment at the
molecular level).
Photochemistry (a term that broadly speaking includes photophysics)
is
abranchofmodernsciencethatdealswiththeinteractionoflightwithmatter
and lies at the crossroadsof chemistry, physics, and biology.
However, before being a branch of modern science, photochemistry
was (and still is today), an extremely important natural
phenomenon. When God said: "Let there be light", photochemistry
began to operate, helping God to create the world as
wenowknowit.Itislikelythatphotochemistrywasthesparkfortheoriginof
life on Earth and played a fundamental role in the evolution of
life. Through the photosynthetic process that takes place in green
plants, photochemistry is responsible for the maintenance of all
living organisms. In the geological past photochemistry caused the
accumulation of the deposits of coal, oil, and naturalgasthat
wenowuseasfuels.Photochemistryisinvolved inthecontrol
ofozoneinthestratosphereandinagreatnumber ofenvironmentalprocesses
thatoccurintheatmosphere,inthesea,andonthesoil.Photochemistryisthe
essenceoftheprocessofvisionandcausesavarietyofbehavioralresponsesin
living organisms. Photochemistry as a science is quite young; we
only need to go back less than one century to ?nd its early pioneer
[1]. The concept of coordination compound is also relatively young;
it was established in 1892, when Alfred Werner conceived his theory
of metal complexes [2]. Since then, the terms coordination compound
and metal complex have been used as synonyms, even if in the last
30 years, coordination chemistry has extended its scope to the
binding ofall kinds of substrates [3, 4].
This book presents critical reviews of the current position and
future trends in modern chemical research. It offers short and
concise reports on chemistry, each written by world renowned
experts.
The intellectual and utilitarian opportunities that lie at the
frontiers of chemistry have been recently emphasized by the
Pimentel Report. Such report recommends that in the field of
chemical research priority should be given to "understanding
chemical reactivity" and proposes initiatives aimed at the
clarification of factors that control the rates of reaction and the
development of new synthetic pathways for chemical change. In the
broad field of chemical reactivity, a discipline that has grown
with an extraordinary rate is photochemistry. Since the knowledge
of the photochemical properties at the molecular level has made a
substantial progress in the last few years, there is currently a
trend to study more and more complex photochemical systems. In
particular, an emerging and rapidly expanding branch of
photochemistry is that concerning studies of assemblies of
molecular components properly combined so as to obtain
light-induced functions (supramolecular photochemistry). Although
much of the current work in supramolecular photochemistry is
fundamental in nature, it is clear that progress in this field will
be most rewarding for several applications concerning the
interaction of light with matter. In particular, it will allow us
to pursue research aimed at the photochemical conversion of solar
energy by means of artificial systems and to make progress towards
futuristic branches of science called "photonics" (photo-generated
electron migration processes on a molecular basis) and "chemionics"
(design of components, circuitry, and information treatment at the
molecular level).
Many people are convinced that, among other courses taught in
schools, chemistry is a difficult and complex subject. This view is
often arrived at without justification. Setting out to introduce
chemistry concepts and demystify chemistry, this book shows how it
is a major part of our everyday lives. It introduces the readers
into the wonderful world of atoms and molecules and chemical
reactions whilst showing that chemistry is centrally important but
also an emerging science and defines what the practising chemist
does. The book also examines curiosity, creativity, fascination,
poetry, beauty, and ethics in science. Originally published in
Italian, 'Chimica - leggere e scrivere il libro della Natura' was
among the finalists of the 2013 Italian Award for popularization of
science. The English translation has been sensitively delivered to
explain concepts in simple language and emphasize the positive role
that chemistry can play to shape our future.
This volume documents the progress made in the design of complex
artificial systems and in the study of intermolecular forces and
interactions. It is possible, using appropriate strategies based on
building blocks, to obtain very large supramolecular arrays
containing several hundered atoms, where specific sites are
occupied by the desired chemical functions. Such arrays can be used
for such things as molecular recognition, self-organization,
self-replication, selective reactivity, selective catalysis,
photoinduced energy and electron transfer, signal processing,
information storage and drug delivery.
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