My research interests center in the highly interdisciplinary area of inorganic materials – supramolecular chemistry, in particular the logical organization of solids via both covalent and non-covalent interactions. The chemistry found within these proposals span organic synthesis, coordination chemistry, the organometallic chemistry of transition group elements, and the chemistry of the main group metals.

One research focus is the directed supramolecular self-assembly of organic and inorganic modules into functional solids with pores of defined size, shape, chemical environment, and function. This generates two types of materials: (1) those that exhibit selective absorption of small molecules, and (2) those that exhibit photophysical properties suitable for designing new sensors, light emitting diodes (LEDs), molecular wires, light harvesting antennae and/or logic gates.

A second research focus lays in the area of mechanically interlocked molecules, especially in the synthesis of Metal – Organic – Rotaxane – Frameworks (MORFs). The marriage between the established versatility of coordination chemistry and the intriguing and promising properties of mechanically interlocked molecules represents an exciting new direction for the preparation of new and unusual synthetic materials.

Reger, Daniel L.; Semeniuc, Radu F.; Gardinier, James R.; Brown, Kenneth J.; Smith, Mark D.  “Pyrazolyl Embrace as a Supramolecular Synthon: Case Study of Metal Carbonyl Complexes Containing Linked Tris(pyrazolyl)methane Ligands” in “Functional Nanomaterials”, eds. Geckeler, Kurt E. and Rosenberg, Edward, American Scientific Publishers, 2006, pages 411-424.

Reger, Daniel L.; Semeniuc, Radu F.; Elgin, J. Derek; Rassolov, Vitaly; Smith, Mark D. “The 1,8-Naphthalimide Synthon in Silver Coordination Chemistry: Control of Supramolecular Arrangement” Cryst. Growth Des. 2006, 6, 2758 – 2768.

Reger, Daniel L.; Semeniuc, Radu F.; Little, Christine A.; Smith, Mark D. “Crystal Retro-Engineering: Structural Impact on Silver(I) Complexes with Changing Complexity of Tris(pyrazolyl)methane Ligands” Inorg. Chem. 2006, 45, 7758-7769.

Reger, Daniel L.; Semeniuc, Radu F.; Gardinier, James R.; O'Neal, Jennifer; Reinecke, Bryn; Smith, Mark D. “New N,N,N-Heteroscorpionates Based on 2,2'-Bis(pyrazolyl)ethanamine and Its Derivatives. Ligands Designed for Probing Supramolecular Interactions” Inorg. Chem. 2006, 45, 4337-4339.

Reger, Daniel L.; Elgin, J. Derek; Semeniuc, Radu F.; Pellechia, Perry J.; Smith, Mark D. “Directional control of π-stacked building blocks for crystal engineering: the 1,8-naphthalimide synthon” Chem. Commun. 2005, 4068-4070.

Reger, Daniel L.; Gardinier, James R.; Bakbak, Selma; Semeniuc, Radu F.; Bunz, Uwe H. F.; Smith, Mark D. “Multitopic third generation tris(pyrazolyl)methane ligands built on alkyne structural scaffolding: first preparation of mixed tris(pyrazolyl)methane/ tris(pyrazolyl)borate ligands” New J. Chem. 2005, 29, 1035-1043.

Reger, Daniel L.; Semeniuc, Radu F.; Rassolov, Vitaly; Smith, Mark D. “Supramolecular Structural Variations with Changes in Anion and Solvent in Silver(I) Complexes of a Semi-rigid, Bitopic Tris(pyrazolyl)methane Ligand” Inorg. Chem. 2004, 43, 537-554.

Reger, Daniel L.; Semeniuc, Radu F.; Smith, Mark D. “Synthesis of Open and Closed Metallacages Using Novel Tripodal Ligands: Unusually Stable Silver(I) Inclusion Compound” Inorg. Chem. 2003, 42, 8137-8139.