Small organic molecule templating synthesis of organic-inorganic hybrid materials: their nanostructures and properties

The design and synthesis of organic-inorganic hybrid materials has developed over the last two decades as chemists and materials engineers have maintained their attention on these materials. In the synthetic process of organic-inorganic hybrid materials, the organic components usually act as templates for directing the connectivity and arrangement of inorganic building blocks. Specifically, according to the size and scale of inorganic building blocks, these organic-inorganic hybrid materials can be divided into molecular scale and nanoscale organic-inorganic hybrid materials. In this review, we highlight the recent advances in using small organic molecules as the templates for the synthesis of organic-inorganic hybrid nanomaterials with interesting properties. The synthetic techniques, hybrid crystal structures, templating roles, crystal growth mechanism, control of sizes and morphologies, and novel properties of organic-inorganic hybrid materials will be discussed.