As an important class of inorganic-organic hybrid materials, metal phosphonates have received increasing attentions in the past two decades owing to their potential applications in ion-exchange and absorption, catalysis, proton conductivity and optics etc. We focus on the assembly of new metal phosphonate materials with novel architectures and interesting physical and chemical properties. Particular attentions are being paid on the paramagnetic 3d and 4f systems in order to discover excellent molecule-based magnets, chiral or polar materials in order to explore new optical and multifunctional materials, and proton conductors for fuel cell applications.

1. Molecule-based magnets
    The search for new low- or high-dimensional molecule-based magnets has been of intense current interest due to their potential applications in the information storage, molecular spintronics and quantum computing. Of equal importance is the modulation of magnetic behavior via external stimuli. By incorporating phosphonate ligands, we have succeeded in synthesizing a number of 3d or 4f compounds that show single molecule magnet (SMM), single-chain magnet (SCM) and long-range ordering behaviors. The tuning of the magnetic behaviors by structures and external stimulus has been investigated.

2. Clean energy-related materials
    Proton-conducting materials are essential components of fuel cells and hence are very important in the field of clear energy. We aim at exploring new high-performance proton conductors based on metal phosphonates and understanding the mechanism about the proton conduction pathways.

3. Other functional metal phosphonates
    Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are of intense current interest. Compared with the popular carboxylates, metal phosphonates possess relatively high thermal and chemical stabilities. However, phosphonate-based MOFs are still rare. On the other hand, metal phosphonates can be designed and synthesized for particular purpose simply by modifying the organic groups of the ligands. We are interested in assembling novel phosphonate-based MOFs, chiral or polar compounds in order to explore materials with multifunctions.

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