SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CHIRAL LUMINESCENT COORDINATION COMPOUNDS EXHIBITING A WHITE CIRCULARY POLARIZED LUMINESCENCE
CHEMISTRY & GREEN CHEMISTRY

Lab: CEMES
Duration: NanoX master Internship (8 months part-time in-lab immersion)
Latest starting date: 12/10/2026
Localisation: LCC : 205 route de Narbonne, 31400 Toulouse
Supervisors:
Emilie DELAHAYE emilie.delahaye@lcc-toulouse.fr
Delphine LAGARDE delphine.lagarde@insa-toulouse.fr
Work package:
Chiral luminophores can emit light with a different intensity in the left and right circular polarization components. This
property, called circularly polarized luminescence (CPL), is particularly interesting for applications in telecommunications,
information storage or even to fight against counterfeiting. Luminophores involve organic, inorganic or hybrid as is the case
with coordination networks.1,2
The compounds that we develop are of that latter type and are obtained in solvothermal conditions through association of
chiral imidazolium ligands (noted as HL*), of oxalic acid and lanthanides ions. These synthesis conditions allow the formation
of [Ln2(L*)2(ox)2(H2O)2] networks ions exhibiting at room temperature a green luminescence when Ln = Tb3+or a red
luminescence when Ln = Eu3+. A yellow luminescence is observable when Tb3+ and Eu3+ are mixed at different ratio (see figure).
The objective of this internship will be to achieve a material that emits a white light with large CPL activity. This will be obtained
by adjusting the composition and ratio in lanthanides ions. The student in charge of this project will perform the synthesis and
the characterization of these materials. This first part will be carried out at LCC. In a second part, the optical properties of these
compounds will be studied. This part will be carried out at LPCNO and will include both the study of their luminescence
properties and their CPL activities. This project aims at establishing a correlation between the optical properties, especially the
CPL activity, and the chemical characteristics of the coordination compounds.

References:
References:
(1) Hao, T.; Xu, B.; Wang, X.; Zheng, H.; Li, S.; Wang, F.; Zhang, J. Enhanced Circularly Polarized Luminescence in Rare-Earth
MOFs via Framework Chirality and Host–Guest Energy Transfer. Polyoxometalates 2025.
https://doi.org/10.26599/POM.2025.9140095.
(2) Luo, X.-Y.; Pan, M. Metal-Organic Materials with Circularly Polarized Luminescence. Coord. Chem. Rev. 2022, 468, 214640.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccr.2022.214640.
Areas of expertise:
Material science, coordination chemistry, optical properties
Required skills for the internship:
Physicist with an interest in optics and not afraid by chemistry (the synthesis are easy
to carry out) or a chemist who wants to go beyond synthesis and wants to study
physical properties of their compounds.
