About the secrets of metal ions and the intrinsic beauty of molecules with academician and professor Marius Andruh, as part of the UB Dose of Science

The UB Dose of Science returns at the beginning of 2023 with the topic “The secrets of metal ions and the intrinsic beauty of molecules” in a presentation of acad. Marius Andruh, PhD, professor at the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Bucharest.

The episode with acad. Marius Andruh, the eighth in the series, can be accessed with just one click below.

This edition of the UB Dose of Science offers us, as the title says, a foray into the universe of metal ions, a range of chemical particles that generate a large class of molecular compounds and that students learn in the 9^th grade.

In other words, the discussion addresses the area of ​​coordination chemistry, a field that uses metal ions due to their particularities in obtaining so-called interesting materials and compounds with interesting structures and properties. As acad. Marius Andruh points out, the field of coordination chemistry is extremely “generous” because it offers a significant variety of synthesis and characterization possibilities. Metal ions have a stereochemical preference that allows specialists to direct molecular architectures. At the same time, metal ions have some electronic peculiarities that determine their color, magnetic properties, catalytic properties, etc., i.e., properties, as Marius Andruh states, that any chemist looks for when synthesizing new compounds.

In addition, the specialist believes, another extremely important component regarding these compounds is aesthetic, given that they have an inherent beauty that fascinates researchers, regardless of age.

Next, Marius Andruh shows that fundamental research is extremely important because it is what contributes to the progress of knowledge. In this sense, in the laboratories of the Faculty of Chemistry, prof. Andruh, together with other researchers and early PhD students, is developing two important topics: so-called coordination polymers and metal ions that have a magnetic moment.

Marius Andruh talks about all these topics, as well as about the original synthesis strategies developed in the laboratories where he works and the involvement of doctoral students in the projects of the Faculty of Chemistry of the UB, in the eighth episode of the UB Dose of Science.

Marius Andruh is a chemist, doctor in chemical sciences, president of the Chemical Sciences Section of the Romanian Academy and professor at the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Bucharest. He is a full member of the Romanian Academy since 2009, after having worked as a corresponding member between 2001-2008.

Marius Andruh contributed to the development of the chemistry of poly-nuclear complex combinations with contributions in the following research areas: supramolecular architectures in coordination chemistry and crystal engineering, molecular magnetism, 3d-4f hetero-poly-nuclear complex combinations, molecular and supramolecular systems with three carriers of different spin, luminescent molecular materials. At the same time, acad. Andruh contributed to the field of chemistry by realizing original strategies for obtaining coordination polymers by using homo- and hetero-metallic oligo-nuclear nodes and by describing new types of topologies for coordination polymers. Together with collaborators, over the years, he synthesized, based on his own strategy, the first mono-dimensional molecular nano-magnets with three different metal ions. He made contributions to metallic-supramolecular chemistry and used, for the first time, heteroleptic bis-oxalate complexes of chromium (III) as metallic-ligands to obtain hetero-metallic systems with oxalate bridges.

He is Doctor Honoris Causa of numerous higher education institutions in the country and abroad. The results of his research are published in more than 300 articles and five book chapters, which have gathered more than 10,000 citations (h-index = 50 – WoK; 51 – SCOPUS, 52 – Google Scholar). More than 25 articles have appeared in the top of the most cited/accessed articles of prestigious international journals: Chemical Communications, Chemistry – A European Journal, Inorganic Chemistry, Dalton Transactions, Crystal Growth & Design, European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, Coordination Chemistry Reviews, New Journal of Chemistry, CrystEngComm, Inorganica Chimica Acta, etc. At the same time, he is the co-author of three books published by the Romanian Academy Publishing House.

Launched in October 2021, the UB Dose of Science is a project that proposes a focused and dynamic way to communicate scientific information in an attractive, lively and expressive format, establishing a platform for dialogue with the public interested in science.

Initiated within the Science Communication Program, launched by the University of Bucharest in 2018, the UB Dose of Science is aimed at the public and encourages the connection between the academic and non-academic milieus, based on current and interesting topics.

The guests of this series, intended to represent a synthetic and engaging way of communicating the various fields of science, are mainly professors and researchers from the academic community of the University of Bucharest.

The materials in the UB Dose of Science include short and dynamic presentations of topics relevant to contemporary society: pollution, climate change, education, digitalization, significant research contributions and others. Thus, in addition to the fundamental dimension of communicating scientifically validated information, the UB Dose of Science also proposes an important component of social responsibility, reconfirming the role and mission of the University of Bucharest within society and contributing to the awareness of acute problems of today’s world and to the promotion of possible solutions to these problems.