Département de chimie moléculaire

Responsive coordination polymers

Coordination polymers are spontaneously generated in solution via reversible and non-covalent interactions between ditopic building blocks and metal cations. These supramolecular assemblies are dynamic by nature and possess a wide range of intriguing properties such as self-healing characters, phase transitions of stimuli-induced disassembling.

Photochromic compounds

We are developing (multi)photochromic derivatives based on the dimethyldihydropyrene (DHP, closed form) unit which has the ability to experience a reversible interconversion to its corresponding cyclophanediene (CPD, open form) isomer  under the effect of optical stimuli. In particular, using our experience in coordination chemistry, we are developing multi-states compounds that associate photochromic units and metal complexes. These compounds may also exhibit interesting properties as active electronic components.

Photodynamic therapy

Upon suitable chemical functionalization, we have shown that the photochromic dimethyldihydropyrene (DHP)/ cyclophanediene (CPD) couple can be used to activate molecular oxygen into highly reactive singlet oxygen (¹O₂) upon light illumination at low energy. In addition, singlet oxygen can be stored as an endoperoxyde form (CPD-O₂) and then released upon thermal activation. In collaboration with the Institute for Advanced Biosciences (IAB-Grenoble, Véronique Josserand, Jean-Luc Coll), these unique properties of the DHP unit are now investigated for biological applications and in particular for photodynamic therapy.

Molecular switches on thin films

The incorporation of photo or thermo molecular switches in thin films is intensively investigated because of their possible applications as memory devices, for optics or gas storage. Among the switchable materials, spin-crossover (magneto and thermo-chromic) complexes and photochromic organic materials are currently studied in our team. Below is an example showing thin films of photo-chromic materials, for which the conductivity is modulated by the state of the photo-isomer.