Alexandre Picot

Long-Lived Two-Photon Excited Luminescence of Water-Soluble Europium Complex: Applications in Biological Imaging Using Two-Photon Scanning Microscopy

A new europium complex presenting good solubility and stability in water, intense emission in the red (616 nm), long luminescence lifetime, and significant two-photon absorption cross-section in the biological window has been designed and successfully used for two-photon scanning microscopy bioimaging experiments on fixed cancer cells.

Efficient Sensitization of Europium, Ytterbium, and Neodymium Functionalized Tris-Dipicolinate Lanthanide Complexes through Tunable Charge-Transfer Excited States

A series of push-pull donor-pi-conjugated dipicolinic acid ligands and related tris-dipicolinate europium and lutetium complexes have been prepared. The ligands present broad absorption and emission transitions in the visible spectral range unambiguously assigned to charge-transfer transitions (CT) by means of time-dependent density functional theory calculations. The photophysical properties (absorption, emission, luminescence quantum yield, and lifetime) of the corresponding europium complexes were thoroughly investigated. Solvatochromism and temperature effects clearly confirm that Eu(III) sensitization directly occurs from the ligand CT state. In addition, modulation of the energy of the CT donating state by changing the nature of the donor fragment allows the optimal energy of the antennae for europium sensitization to be determined, and this optimal energy was found to be close to the (5)D 1 accepting state. Finally, this CT sensitization process has been successfully extended to near-infrared emitters (neodymium and ytterbium).

Design of Dipicolinic Acid Ligands for the Two-Photon Sensitized Luminescence of Europium Complexes with Optimized Cross-Sections

The multistep synthesis of an extensive series of push-pull donor-pi-conjugated dipicolinic acid ligands is described. The charge transfer character of the ligand can be tuned by changing the donor group (CH 2R, OR, SR, or NR 2) or the nature of the conjugated backbone (phenyl, phenylethynyl, naphtylethynyl, bis(phenylethynyl), or chalcone). The photophysical properties of related D 3 symmetric europium complexes (absorption and luminescence) were measured. Experiments using two-photon sensitized luminescence of a Eu (III) complex reveal large two-photon absorption (TPA) cross-section values (775 GM at 740 nm) in dichloromethane. Furthermore, some structure-property relationships can be derived from this systematic study, allowing an optimization of TPA properties of lanthanide complexes.

Interplay between Hydrido/Dihydrogen and Amine/Amido Ligands in Ruthenium-Catalyzed Transfer Hydrogenation of Ketones

This work describes the synthesis of three key intermediates of Noyori-type catalytic systems that are active precatalysts for the transfer hydrogenation of acetophenone. Isolation of the cationic chloro(dihydrogen) complex [RuCl(H(2))(H(2)NNPP)(PCy(3))][BArf(4)] provides a facile synthetic route to the corresponding cationic and neutral hydrido complexes, and the series highlights the links between hydride/dihydrogen and amine/amido ligands in neutral and cationic species.

Bonding Mode of a Bifunctional P∼Si−H Ligand in the Ruthenium Complex “Ru(PPh2CH2OSiMe2H)3”

The phosphinosilane compound PPh 2CH 2OSiMe 2H is potentially a bifunctional P approximately Si-H ligand. By treatment with the Ru (II) precursor RuH 2(H 2) 2(PCy 3) 2, the complex Ru(PPh 2CH 2OSiMe 2H) 3 ( 2), resulting from the coordination of three ligands and the displacement of two PCy 3 and two dihydrogen ligands, was formed. The different bonding modes for each of the three bifunctional P approximately Si-H ligands are discussed on the basis of multinuclear NMR, X-ray diffraction, and density functional theory studies. One ligand acts as a monodentate phosphine ligand with a pendant Si-H group, whereas the two others act as bidentate ligands with different Si-H bond activations. Indeed, an intermediate structure between two arrested forms 2a and 2b can be proposed: a dihydrido(disilyl)ruthenium(IV) species (form 2a) resulting from two Si-H oxidative additions or a hydrido(silyl)ruthenium(II) species (form 2b) presenting an agostic Si-H bond and only one oxidative addition.

Design of pyridine-dicarboxamide ligands for the sensitization of europium(III) by two photon antenna effect

We report the design of donor functionalized π-conjugated pyridine dicarboxamide based chromophores presenting TPE fluorescence properties. Their use for the complexation of lanthanides and the sensitization of europium(III) luminescence by two photon antenna effect is also described.