Uncaging with Visible Light, Inorganic Caged Compounds

L. BARALDO; L ZAYAT; R. ETCHENIQUE

Imaging in neuroscience and development

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Lugar: Cols Spring Harbor, NY; Año: 2005; p. 391 - 394

The chemistry of coordination compounds [i.e. inorganic substances centered on a metal ion  surrounded by chemically-bound non-metallic atoms from ligand molecules ] offers a wide range of photochemical reactions that have been used in applications ranging from photography and lithography to light harvesting in solar cells. Despite this they have been little used for uncaging biomolecules. Of the 90 stable, or quasi-stable, elements in the periodic table, approximately 60 are metals, or present metal-like behavior. These elements have very rich chemistry. Most metals can form complexes with several ligands, which often present interesting photochemical properties. The properties of the coordination compounds can be tuned by carefully selecting the appropriated ligands for each coordination position available. Coordination compounds offer a number of advantages over organic substances as phororeleasers. A key advantage over other uncaging methods is the use of visible light. This chapter presents a brief panorama of metal-based caged compounds, and their advantages, arising from chemical and physical properties.