The considerable inorganic synthesis capabilities that ware developed during CIMAT first funding cycle will be brought to bear in work that is relevant to catalysis, biomimetic materials systems and macromolecules.

The use of modular components as building blocks to assemble networks is the basis for one of the most active and important areas of chemical research. The intermodular recognition events implicit in the formation of nanostructure architectures can range from weak to fairly strong; the most common of these interactions being hydrogen bonding, ππ stacking, covalent, and metal ligand bond formation. Since both electronic and stereochemical controls should be considered in the formation of ordered structures, the most important design strategy is to allow concomitant but separate molecular and crystal engineering, that is the design of molecular structures and crystal packing in two independent controls.

Current studies on inorganic-organic hybrid materials mainly concentrate on the following aspects: the template induced macroporous materials which can be used as catalysts, coordination polymers and clusters, which present new physical and chemical properties, and biomineralized systems. This diversity in synthetic systems is derived from the great possibility of the structural construction from both inorganic and organic parts.

Metal centres play a key role in the molecular recognition processes in the formation of extended materials and biological systems, as they act as template agents. The considerable amount of interest in copper atoms is mainly related to the plasticity in structural features which gives rise to attractive magnetic properties, mixed valence oxidation state pairs which are related to electron transfer processes and from the biological point of view, as antibacterial and anticarcinogenic agents. As a way of increasing the use of the mononuclear copper (II) complexes that have been prepared in the last years in our group ,we have extended the synthesis to square planar species that have the capability of participating as catalysts in co- polymerisation processes and as antitumoral agents. The work on catalysis will be carried further in collaboration with R. Quijada,

Our research will develop along three directions of particular relevance to materials science: Molecular switches, since getting such switches provides motivation for a growing area of investigation that seeks to develop new complexes with organic molecules such as cathecols, cathecolamines and thiocathecols. Extended frameworks, for example of vanadyl phosphates, due to their possible use as biomimetic systems for the study of the characteristics of hydroxoapatite, and the richness of the structural chemistry of vanadium oxide that allows for the creation of complex structures with the search for new catalytic materials in mind. Clusters, to take advantage of the synthetic capabilities developed by the CIMAT group, now within the perspective of the fabrication of storage systems: say, anchoring molybdenum-cobalt or copper-cobalt clusters on a copper surface.

Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad de Chile. Av. Blanco Encalada 2008, piso zócalo, Santiago, Chile. Phone (56 2) 678 48 55.