Structures and physical properties of some coordination complexes in the solid state.

For a long time, the vast majority of the compounds synthesised by coordination chemists were studied, from the point of view of understanding their structures and properties, as if they existed as in the form of independent molecules isolated from one another in vacuo. However, in the last 10-20 years, research has progressively moved towards those physical properties of inorganic solids that are called 'collective', i.e. that arise not from the individual molecules but from the lattice as a whole. Cooperative mechanism and superconductivity are examples of such properties which, while having their origin in the electronic properties of the units that make up the lattice, arise principally from the interactions between neighbouring sites. This brief account, based on a lecture given at the CONCOORD-GECOM 99 Conference situates this topic within the realm of supramolecular chemistry, and describes some structure-property relations in several recent cases. In particular, one- and two-dimensional lattices built up from 3d metal coordination complexes are considered. (C) 1999 Academie des sciences/Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.