title: Electrochemistry and Photoluminescence of Icosahedral Carboranes, Boranes, Metallacarboranes, and Their Derivatives.
abstract: Icosahedral boranes, carboranes, and metallacarboranes are extraordinarily robust compounds with desirable properties such as thermal and redox stability, chemical inertness, low nucleophilicity, and high hydrophobicity, making them attractive for several applications such as medicine, nanomaterials, molecular electronics, energy, catalysis, environmental chemistry, and other areas. The hydrogen atoms in these clusters can be replaced by convenient groups that open the way to a chemical alternative to conventional "organic" or "organometallic" realms. Icosahedral boron cluster derivatives have been reviewed from different perspectives; however, there is a need for a review dedicated to the redox and photophysical characteristics of easily accessible borane and carborane derivatives, which are excellent materials for a wide range of applications. This review deals with the redox properties and photoluminescence behavior of this collection of compounds, as well as their influence on the properties of materials and devices whose working principles are related to electron-transfer or electron-promotion phenomena. We hope that this review will be of great value to boron cluster scientists and researchers working in the photoluminescence and electrochemistry fields who are interested in exploring the possibilities of these unique and promising systems.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona , 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Rosario
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Núñez
authors.affiliation: Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona , 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Màrius
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tarrés
authors.affiliation: Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona , 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ferrer-Ugalde
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biotecnologie, Chimica e Farmacia, Universita degli Studi di Siena , via Aldo Moro, 2, 53100 Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabrizia Fabrizi
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: de Biani
authors.affiliation: Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona , 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Francesc
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Teixidor