Design of advanced photosensitizers for multielectron oxidation reactions

5 May 2024
Job Information

Organisation/Company

IRIG

Department

DIESE

Research Field

Chemistry » Molecular chemistry
Chemistry » Organic chemistry
Chemistry » Solar chemistry

Researcher Profile

First Stage Researcher (R1)

Country

France

Application Deadline

5 Jun 2024 - 23:59 (Europe/Paris)

Type of Contract

Temporary

Job Status

Full-time

Hours Per Week

35

Offer Starting Date

1 Oct 2024

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by an EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

Solar-driven chemical synthesis involving multi-electronic processes still faces major challenges for finding wide range applications. A fundamental bottleneck faced by molecular systems lies in the inability of most photosensitizers to deliver more than one charge after photoexcitation. This leads to a high probability of charge recombination or detrimental side reactions to occur before closing the targeted catalytic cycle.

With this project we propose to design and investigate polyrylene-based antennae capable to perform singlet fission, and couple them to polypyridyl ruthenium catalysts, to tackle these challenges in archetypal 2-electron oxidation reactions. Singlet fission is a photophysical phenomenon occurring in chromophores assemblies, where one excited singlet state evolves into two spin-triplet states. Rylene antenna leading to the generation of two excited states bearing enough driving force for charge injection into an appropriate catalyst, could help drastically reduce the detrimental back electron transfer processes in multi-electronic catalysis.

Following our initial work on perylene-based antennae (figure) we will implement terrylene units around a triptycene scaffold as the latter chromophores are known to efficiently promote singlet fission  and transpose the successful design to fully water-soluble systems.The antennae will next be grafted onto ruthenium oxidation catalysts and evaluated as advanced photosensitizers to drive alcohol oxidation reactions.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, synthesize and characterize the antenna / antenna-catalysts assemblies
• Evaluate the photocatalytic activity of the antenna-catalysts assemblies
• Participate in the analysis and writing of scientific publications
• Disseminate the results in meetings,  congresses, and talks

Requirements

Research Field

Chemistry » Organic chemistry

Education Level

Master Degree or equivalent

Skills/Qualifications

The candidates are expected to demonstrate strong background in multistep synthetic organic chemistry, and classical characterization techniques applied to molecular systems (NMR, MS, UV-Vis, IR). Knowledge in coordination chemistry and electrochemistry will be a plus.

 

Languages

ENGLISH

Level

Excellent

Languages

FRENCH

Research Field

Chemistry » Organic chemistryChemistry » Molecular chemistry

Additional Information
Selection process

applications will be accepted untill the 5th of June and the selected candidates will be invited for an online interview.

Additional comments

This project is part of a collaborative ANR funded program between the SolHyCat group in charge of the synthesis of the antenna and the antenna-catalyst assemblies, as well as the characterization of the photocatalytic activity of the latter; the LBMS team (SB2SM, University Paris Sacaly) in charge of the advanced photophysical characterization of the antenna and antenna-catalaysts assemblies; the CI team (LCT, Sorbonne University) in charge of the computational analysis of the system.

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

CEA Grenoble

Country

France

City

Grenoble

Postal Code

38000

Street

17 rue des Martyrs

Geofield

Where to apply

E-mail

[email protected]

Contact

City

Grenoble

Website

http://www.cea.fr/drf/irig/Pages/Laboratoires/LCBM.aspx

Street

17 Rue des Martyrs

Postal Code

38054

E-Mail

[email protected]

STATUS: EXPIRED