ABSTRACT
Supramolecular electrochemistry concerns the description of the electrochemical properties of supramolecular systems. The study of supramolecular systems has developed enormously over the last two decades and, for its extensive interdisciplinarity, has lead to a very large integration of modern chemistry with materials science [la]. The classical definition of supramolecular chemistry, given by J.-M. Lehn, as "the chemistry beyond the molecule" [lb-e] underlines the concept that "the association of two or more chemical species held together by intermolecular forces" may give rise to a new chemical entity whose properties are totally new and perhaps even unexpected with respect to those of the individual components. Orthodoxy would distinguish between supramolecular systems and multicomponent systems, the former being assemblies in which the individual components are kept together by relatively weak, non-covalent, bonds. One should however consider that in most cases a supramolecular system intrigues more for the chemical or physical functions it is able to perform rather than for the way the single components are brought together. From a functional point of view, then, a different definition has been proposed [2], and is now widely accepted [3], which underlines the fact that,
regardless the nature of the bonds that link the molecular units, a supramolecular system, at variance with a large molecule, is a chemical species in which the electronic interactions between the units are weak enough to leave most of their properties almost unchanged (with respect to the separated units), and, at the same time, strong enough to promote the novel and unique properties of the supramolecular assembly.
