Units

High Resolution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

The High-Resolution NMR lab, headed by Prof. Michel Luhmer, is part of the “Service de Chimie et PhysicoChimie Organiques". The research focusses on the development and applications of multinuclear solution-state NMR spectroscopy in the framework of structural, thermodynamic, kinetic and/or dynamic studies and deals with a large variety of systems.
Major current research topics are (i) the characterization of supramolecular assemblies, (ii) the study of photochemical processes and, more recently, (iii) the characterization of electrochemical processes. A major achievement is the development of Photo-Chemically Induced Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (photo-CIDNP) measurements for the characterization of photo-induced electron transfer processes with metal complexes.

Projetcs

Selective synthesis of rim-differentiated pillar[6]arenes to access new applications

Project led by R. Lavendomme in collab. at ULB with I. Jabin.
Pillar[n]arenes are oligomeric macrocycles with a cylindrical cavity and used in various applications, notably as receptors in host-guest chemistry. These macrocycles can bear various chemical functions on both of their rims that are necessary for specific applications. Yet, it is challenging to introduce different functions on each rim with decent yields, thus limiting the number of applications available. This project aims to develop new methods to prepare rim-differentiated pillar[6]arenes selectively and explore the applications only accessible to these rim-differentiated macrocycles.