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Inorganic Caged Compounds: Uncaging with Visible Light

Adapted from "A Practical Guide: Uncaging with Visible Light, Inorganic Caged Compounds," Chapter 49, in Imaging in Neuroscience and Development (eds. Yuste and Konnerth). Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA, 2005.

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INTRODUCTION

The chemistry of coordination compounds (i.e., inorganic substances centered on a metal atom surrounded by chemically bound nonmetallic atoms from ligand molecules) offers a wide range of photochemical reactions used in applications ranging from photography and lithography to light harvesting in solar cells. Despite this fact, they have not been exploited for uncaging biomolecules. This article presents a brief panorama of metal-based caged compounds and their advantages, which arise from their chemical and physical properties.

Background

Of the 90 stable, or quasistable, elements in the periodic table, ~60 are metals, or present metal-like behavior. These elements have very rich chemistry. Most . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Ruthenium Complexes

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CONCLUSION