The long-term goal of the research line that we pursue since is the development of light-tunable organometallic compounds, for a wide range of applications, being catalysis the central part of it.
After some initial explorative years, nowadays we have a set of synthetic tools, and we are ready to incorporate azobenzene derivatives in a wide range of compounds.
In these years we have synthesized more than 60 new azobenzene-appended organometallic complexes, and studied them for several applications: iridium(III) triscyclometalated for phosphors in OLEDs, and ruthenium(II) and iridium(III) half-sandwich complexes to be used as photoswitchable catalysts for hydrogen generation, or ruthenium(II) compounds as drugs for cancer therapy are the first examples we worked on.
Expanding the range of compounds, and applications together with gaining a better understanding and control of their interaction with light is our daily task that should bring us through a path of amazing discoveries.