ИСТИНА

Currently a new trend is formed in nanotechnology “bottom-up”: molecular engineering of molecular devices and machines for various purposes. We propose a new unique class of polyfunctional light-sensitive compounds: unsaturated dyes functioning as photochromes, fluorophores and ionophores. A large body of research has been performed for their synthesis, determination of their spatial structures, study of self-assembly features to give nanosized systems, and also study of fluorescent, photochemical and complexing properties. Resulting from the research, we elaborated for the first time universal molecular meccano, allowing one to accomplish building-up, with using a limited number of complementary compounds, light-sensitive and light-emissive nanosized systems of varied architecture with adjusted properties. Within the same class of compounds one can construct in solution, solid and at the air-water interface new types of photoswitchable molecular devices, photocontrolled molecular machines, photosensitive monolayers and monocrystals susceptible to all of the key photoprocesses. The high practical value of these studies deserves attention. They provide a new strategy for the design of materials for nanophotonics, which was demonstrated, first of all, by the creation of practically important sensor and photochromic materials. This work was supported by the RAS, the RFBR, the Ministry of Science and Education, the Moscow Government, the INTAS, the CRDF, the DFG, and the Royal Society.