Coordination chemistry for environmental applications

With more than 35 years of renowned activity in the field of synthetic porphyrin and corrole chemistry, our current contribution focuses on i) Sensors with the development of a cutting-edge technology for the selective detection of carbon monoxide using original cobalt corrole complexes, ii) Photochemistry with porphyrins implemented in artificial light harvesting systems, in photovoltaics, catalysis, as well as molecular electronics, and recently in fuel cells, and iii) Medical imaging where important efforts are devoted to the synthesis of new dyes with optimized properties for multimodal imaging. During the last two decades, we have also made significant advances in the field of porous materials incorporating polyazamacrocycles, corroles, or rigid polyaryles. Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) and Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs), prepared by self-assembling under solvothermal conditions, have found useful applications, especially for the selective gas adsorption (capture of CO2 and CO). A third research direction is focused on the chelation and speciation studies of d and f-block elements with siderophores (microbial iron chelators) and bioinspired hydroxamic acids, with a strong emphasis on the structural, equilibrium, and kinetic aspects for a better understanding of the solubilisation and migration of actinides (UO22+, Pu4+) in contaminated soils. Original sequestering agents ultimately grafted on organic resins are sought as solid/liquid extracting materials for analytical applications (pre-concentration and passive DGT-type sampling devices for the environmental monitoring of plutonium).

People involved: S. Brandès (IR CNRS), N. Desbois (MCF uB), C. Gros (PU uB), M. Meyer (CR CNRS), S. Pacquelet (ADJ uB), C. Stern (MCF uB)