Lanthanide-Containing Liquid Crystals and Surfactants

Abstract

Christiane Görller-Walrand was born in Brussels, Belgium, in 1943. She is a Professor of Chemistry at the Catholic University of Leuven. She obtained her M.S. (1965) and Ph.D. (1969) in Chemistry at the Catholic University of Leuven. She was chairperson of the First International Conference on f-Elements (ICFE-1, Leuven, 1990). Her research interests include coordination chemistry, the spectroscopy of lanthanides and actinides, and MCD spectroscopy. Koen Binnemans was born in Geel, Belgium, in 1970. He obtained his M.S. (1992) and Ph.D. (1996) in Chemistry at the Catholic University of Leuven, under the supervision of Prof. C. Görller-Walrand. Since 1996, he has been a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (Belgium). He did postoctoral work with Prof. J. Lucas (Rennes, F) and Prof. D. W. Bruce (Exeter, UK). In 2000, he received the first ERES Junior Award (ERES: European Rare-Earth and Actinide Society).His current research interests are metal-containing liquid crystals (metallomesogens), MRI contrast reagents, lanthanide-doped sol−gel glasses, and lanthanide spectroscopy. Other interests include reading, collecting minerals, Egyptology, and the history of articifial lighting.

Listening to Lanthanide Complexes: Determination of the Intrinsic Luminescence Quantum Yield by Nonradiative Relaxation

“…The strong mesophase and temperature influence on the luminescence lifetime and quantum yield permits the possibility for luminescence metallomesogens as temperature sensors, besides the potential application in the field of liquidcrystal displays and magnetooptical data storage. [11] 4. Conclusions A PA method is proposed to determine the intrinsic quantum yield of lanthanide complexes with luminescence lifetimes in the order of milliseconds.…”

“…These characteristics enable them to have wide application in responsive luminescent stains for biomedical analysis with temporal and spectral discrimination, [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] and to find use in development for liquid-crystal displays, [10][11][12][13] laser materials [14][15] and optoelectronic emitters. [16][17] Generally, the excellent luminescence properties of lanthanide complexes are attributed to the intramolecular energy transfer between the organic ligands and chelated metal ("antenna effect").…”

Encoding calamitic mesomorphism in thermotropic lanthanidomesogens

“…The recent report of nematic mesomorphism around 85-90 uC for the related, but unsymmetrical complexes [Ln(L5)(diketonate) 3 ], in which cyanobiphenyl groups are decoupled from the bulky lanthanide core, is an encouraging pioneering step towards the controlled formation of fluid layered organisation with luminescent lanthanides (Fig. 1) 3 ]. 8 Published in Chemical Communications (ChemComm) 27, [2922][2923][2924]2006 which should be used for any reference to this work…”

Magnetic surfactants

“…Since then many different complexing agent-metal ion combinations have been introduced [70][71][72][73][74][75]. The difference between these compounds and the ionic surfactants mentioned above is simply that they were coordinated with two or more separate sites rather by simple electrostatic interactions.…”

“…The difference between these compounds and the ionic surfactants mentioned above is simply that they were coordinated with two or more separate sites rather by simple electrostatic interactions. In some cases up to seven donor centers can encapsulate the metal ions, which is particularly important for in vivo application (Figure 8) [74]. For example, Gd 3+ is an ideal element for use as a paramagnetic contrast agent in magnetic resonance tomography (MRT), especially for brain tumor enhancements [76].…”