Phd Student (M/F): Chemistry of nanomaterials for bio-imaging (TOULOUSE)

Clément Roux and Christophe Coudret will be co-supervisors of this PhD. Most of the work will be carried out at the laboratory of Molecular Interactions, Chemical and Photochemical Reactivity (IMRCP), on the main science campus in Toulouse.
The successful candidate will join the IDEAS team (Dynamic Interfaces and stimuli-responsive assemblies: http://imrcp.ups-tlse.fr/fr/page/l%C3%A9quipe-ideas-j-d-marty-n-lauth-de... ), whose research activities are focused on the formation and characterization of self-assemblies and photo-responsive systems, with applications in biology and more specifically bio-imaging.
Considering the preliminary work already accomplished in this project, opportunities for publications should be numerous.

In the framework of the NanoFBI project, funded by the National Research Agency, we are looking for a candidate to carry out a Phd on the chemistry of nanomaterials.
Project NanoFBI, set to begin in Jan 2022, will seek to develop a new class of nanocrystals based on lanthanide ions, as novel contrast agents in bio-imaging. When the crystals are doped with the right selection of ions (Nd, Yb, Tm), and excited in the near infrared, they are capable of so-called anti-Stokes luminescence, also known as upconversion. (Haase and Schäfer: https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201005159; Chen and Wang: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trechm.2020.01.008 ). By taking advantage of the very long excited state lifetimes of the various ions, these nanocrystals can luminescence for hundreds of microseconds.
The successful candidate will be in charge of the synthesis (wet synthesis, high temperature) and characterization (electron microscopy, XRD, upconversion spectroscopy) of the nanoparticles, whose composition and structures (size, dopant segregation) will be carefully selected to optimise their detectability in a delayed luminescence setup.
Besides, the candidates will interact with local collaborators in two other institutes: CEMES, team M3 (https://www.cemes.fr/ ) for the advanced spectroscopic characterizations, and I2MC, team Archi-card ((https://www.i2mc.inserm.fr/ ) for the in vitro/vivo evaluation of the contrast agents.