Claudio N. Verani Title Assistant Professor Division Inorganic Education B.S., Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil), 1994 M.Sc., Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil), 1996 Ph.D., Max-Planck Institute for Radiation Chemistry/Ruhr-University (Germany), 2000 Postdoctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins University, 2000-2002. Office Chem 143 Phone (313)577-1076 E-Mail Group http://chem.wayne.edu/veranigroup

The focus of our research interests is the synthesis and study of mono- and multimetallic coordination complexes of transition metal ions that exhibit novel spectroscopic, magnetic, electrochemical, amphiphilic, or mesogenic properties. These complexes are used in the development of molecule-based materials. The large body of work resulting of ca. four decades of intensive research in the bioinorganic field has given substantial answers about how enzymes and other biorelevant molecules operate. The Verani Group is taking advantage of two typically bioinorganic approaches, namely biomodeling and biomimicking as tools to understand, design, and development molecule-based materials with potential relevance to the broadlydefined fields of metal-containing soft materials, supramolecular chemistry, molecular engineering, molecular electronics, and nanotechnology. Applications include stimulus-responsive liquid crystals, magnetic films and coatings, redox-driven switches, chemical sensors for molecular recognition, nanowires, and catalysts.

The major fields of current interest are as follows:

1. The understanding of coordination modes in metal complexes of asymmetric ligands: These systems act as archetypes for the development of metal-containing soft materials.

2. The development of surfactant and mesogenic metal-containing soft materials and the study of their properties and surface chemistry

3. The understanding and development of weakly coupled redox-driven molecular switches.

Other projects involve electrochromic metalloplastics and anti-tumor metallodrugs. These research topics encompass several aspects of modern coordination chemistry, including ligand design, inorganic synthesis, temperature and field dependent magnetic susceptibility, UV-visible, and EPR spectroscopy, electrochemistry, crystallography, Langmuir-Blodgett and self-assembly surface techniques, polarized microscopy, among others. In the long run, our objective is to seek, understand and systematize relationships between molecular topology and structure, spectroscopic, magnetic, electrochemical, amphiphilic and mesogenic properties of such species. The interface between experiment and theory is stressed by means of molecular orbital calculations. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the research several collaborations are established.

“Influence of Ligand Rigidity and Ring Substitution on the Structural and Electronic Behavior of Trivalent Iron and Gallium Complexes with Asymmetric Tridentate Ligands” Imbert, C.; Hratchian, H.P.; Lanznaster, M.; Heeg, M.J.; Hryhorczuk, L.M.; McGarvey, B.R.; Schlegel, H.B.; Verani, C.N., Inorg. Chem. 2005, 44, 7414-7422

“Structural, spectroscopic, and electrochemical behavior of trans-phenolato cobalt(III) complexes of asymmetric NN’O ligands as archetypes for metallomesogens” Shakya, R.; Imbert, C.; Hratchian, H.P.; Lanznaster, M.; Heeg, M.J.; McGarvey, B.R.; Allard, M. Schlegel, H.B.; Verani, C.N Dalton Trans., 2006, 2517–2525

“Structural and Electronic Behavior of Unprecedented Five-Coordinate Iron(III) and Gallium(III) Complexes with a New Phenol-Rich Electroactive Ligand” Lanznaster, M.; Hratchian, H.P.; Heeg, M.J. Hryhorczuk, L.; McGarvey, B.R.; Schlegel, H.B.; Verani, C.N. Inorg. Chem. 2006, 45, 955-957

“Synthesis, Structure, and Anticancer Activity of Gallium(III) Complexes with Asymmetric Tridentate Ligands: Growth Inhibition and Apoptosis Induction of Cisplatin-resistant Neuroblastoma Cells” Shakya, R.; Peng, F.;Liu, J.; Heeg, M.J.; Verani, C.N. Inorg. Chem. 2006 in press.