Laurent DOUCE1
1CNRS/UdS, Strasbourg, France
Light and associated phenomena, such as luminescence, have proven to be powerful tools with great sensitivity for exploring the infinitely small, physical processes (energy and electron transfer, polarity, pressure, etc.) and physicochemical processes (concentration, visualisation and localisation of species, etc.). In this context, molecular salts, in particular those based on imidazolium units, have attracted the attention of the scientific community due to their original properties and structural versatility.
In this presentation, we will describe the synthesis and design of new families of highly luminescent materials in the three states of matter (liquid, liquid crystal, crystalline) in a minimum of steps and without rare, expensive and strategic chemical elements.
Once functionalized with fluorophores, these saline materials; where the amphipathic character can be adjusted; we will present that these platforms are efficient and highly bioavailable for DNA detection and cell imaging, opening the way to theranostics (therapy and diagnosis). The crystal structures obtained by R-X will be used to shed light on the photo-physical properties of these materials. Finally, we will present the shaping of some luminescent imidazolium into centimetric photonic single crystals and their properties to detect neutrons of any energy. In the near future, these luminescent salts could replace helium(3) in detector the low energy neutrons.
References :
1)Cover Page: Luminescent Ionic Liquid Crystals Based on Naphthalene-Imidazolium Unit. (DOI: 10.1002/ejoc.202100374), del Giudice, N., M. L'Her, E. Scrafton, Y. Atoini, G. Gentile, B. Heinrich, R. Berthiot, A. Aliprandi and L. Douce, European Journal of Organic Chemistry 2021, 14, 2091-2098. DOI:10.1002/ejoc.202100047 2) Review: Luminescent Imidazolium Salts as Bright Multi-Faceted Tools for Biology. R. Berthiot, N. del Giudice and L. Douce, European Journal of Organic Chemistry 2021, 29,4099-4106. DOI:10.1002/ejoc.202100459