Supramolecular chemical information science

Abstract Chemistry is a central science because all the processes that sustain life are based on chemical reactions, and all things that we use in everyday life are natural or artificial chemical compounds. Chemistry is also a fantastic world populated by an unbelievable number of nanometric objects called molecules, the smallest entities that have distinct shapes, sizes, and properties. Molecules are the words of matter. Indeed, most of the other sciences have been permeated by the concepts of chemistry and the language of molecules. Like words, molecules contain specific pieces of information that are revealed when they interact with one another or when they are stimulated by photons or electrons. In the hands of chemists, molecules, particularly when they are suitably combined or assembled to create supramolecular systems, can play a variety of functions, even more complex and more clever than those invented by nature. The wonderful world of chemistry has inspired scientists not only to prepare new molecules or investigate new chemical processes, but also to create masterpieces. Some nice stories based on chemical concepts (1) show that there cannot be borders on the Earth, (2) underline that there is a tight connection among all forms of matter, and (3) emphasize the irreplaceable role of sunlight. 

Lehn describes Supramolecular Chemistry as the chemistry of inter-molecular bonds, which involves recognition, transformation and translocation of information [1] beyond the elementary structures of individual molecules. Rapidly expanding at the interdisciplinary frontiers of chemical science with physical and biological phenomena, supramolecular chemistry has opened up a broad range of activities to create and fabricate diverse nanoscale architectures via recognition, which impUes the storage and read-out of molecular... 

From molecular recognition to self-organization, to prograinmed chemical systems, supramolecular chemistry progressively leads up the ladder of complexity and opens new horizons for chemistry toward a science of informed, organized, and adaptative matter. 

A most basic and far-reaching contribution of supramolecular chemistry is the introduction and implementation in chemical science of the concept of molecular information and its corollaries, instructions and programmed chemical systems, with the aim of gaining progressive control over the organization of matter. 

Within the scientific community, photochemistry is applied to a wide range of disciplines, from physical chemistry, to supramolecular chemistry, chemical biology, materials science and nanoscience. It is thus very important to understand the fundamental concepts at the basis of the interaction of light with molecules and to know what information can be gained by photophysical and photochemical techniques, as well as practical aspects for the application of these techniques. 

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