Julien
LECLAIRE

Taught academic discipline(s)

Julien Leclaire is a researcher at l’Institut de chimie et biochimie moléculaires et supramoléculaires, Chair of Excellence at the labex iMUST.
Its ambition: to develop innovative green processes to "extract" molecules with high medical or industrial potential.

Research topics

Research Interests : Nano-objects – Nano-materials

Nano-objects : Dynamic cyclophanes (Dynarenes) – Molecular Recognition – Protein binding –Information transfer– Stereoselectivity.
Nano-materials: Self-assembled & organized material – Complex molecular systems –waste recycling

 

Activities / Resume

Each molecular object has its own shape and electronic density and is therefore capable of storing and transmitting this information. This is what nature has managed to master at the end of evolution through the molecules that equip all living beings such as nucleic acids, sugars or proteins. In the Applied Supramolecular Chemistry team, we are applying the phenomenon of information transfer to the spontaneous assembly of complex buildings under mild and eco-friendly conditions. An "instructor" molecule or template is used to transfer its molecular information in terms of chemical functions, size and symmetry to a molecular system of elementary bricks that can be associated by reversible chemical or physical bonds. Using this approach, we have developed a new family of architectures with cylindrical topography, assembled by a green process and at gram scale: dynarenes. On these analogues of cavitands finding applications in many fields, the transfer of information allows us to customize the size, sequence, electronic richness and chirality. The instructor molecule can correspond to a pattern for which we wish to obtain a selective fingerprint for analysis and purification (notably proteins, on which we are working in partnership with the pharmaceutical industry) or be an initiator in the formation of perfectly controlled superstructures (wires, tubes, nanoparticles, sheets) that can be used for the bottom-up construction of technological devices.
 

The strategy for information transfer during an assembly process is also explored at the material level. This approach involves forming the customised encapsulation matrix of small molecules that can be recovered. Due to the very high selectivity of the process, it is possible to extract these molecular targets from complex mixtures of waste materials. The originality of our approach consists in using carbon dioxide as a constituent of and switch to the formation/dissociation of these original supramolecular materials. In a purely organic version, these systems have led to innovative CO2 recycling processes at reduced cost (IFPEN collaboration). In the organometallic version, a selective recycling process for strategic metals has recently been developed. Its implementation in continuous flow as well as the properties of the new materials produced are currently under study (LGPC and CRMN collaboration).
 

 

Bibliography:

– Fotiadu, F.; Jacquim, M.; Leclaire, J.; Methivier, A.; Bouillon, P. Antoine; Desbois, P. Procedure of removal of acidic compounds from a gaseous effluent with regeneration of the absorbent solution by chemical equilibrium shift. Fr. Demande (2012), FR 2969504 A1 20120629.
– Leclaire, J.; Mazari, M.; Zhang, Y.; Bonduelle, C.; Thillaye du Boullay, O.; Martin-Vaca, B.; Bourissou, D.; De Riggi, I.; Fortrie, R.; Fotiadu, F.; Buono, G. Bare Histidine-Serine Models: Implication and Impact of Hydrogen Bonding on Nucleophilicity, Chem. Eur. J. 2013, 19, 11101
– Leclaire, J.; Canard, G.; Fotiadu, F.; Poisson, G. Method for detecting, capturing and/or releasing chemical elements by molecular assembly under dynamic combinatorial chemistry conditions. PCT Int. Appl. (2014), WO 2014188115 A1 20141127
– Skowron, P.-T.; Dumartin, M.; Jeamet, E.; Perret, F.; Gourlaouen, C.; Baudouin, A.; Fenet, B.; Naubron, J.-V.; Fotiadu, F.; Vial, L.; Leclaire, J. On-Demand Cyclophanes: Substituent- Directed Self-Assembling, Folding, and Binding. J. Org. Chem. 2016, 81,654-661
– Leclaire, J.; Poisson, G;; Ziarelli, F.; Pepe, G.; Fotiadu, F.; Paruzzo, F. M.; Rossini, A. J.; Dumez, J.-N.; Elena-Herrmann, B; Emsley, L. Structure elucidation of a complex CO2-based organic framework material by NMR crystallography. Chem. Sci. 2016, en révision

About Julien Leclaire:

Julien Leclaire is a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon. After a PhD thesis at the University Paul Sabatier Toulouse III in the field of phosphorus dendrimers and a post-doctorate at the University of Cambridge in Dynamic Combinatorial Chemistry, he was appointed Lecturer at the Ecole Centrale Marseille in 2005. He joined UCB Lyon 1 and  l’ICBMS as leader Chimie Supramoléculaire Appliquée team in 2013. He's working on information transfer at the molecular level.

Additional informations

– Team CSAp de l’ICBMS

– Article on the website of l’Université de Lyon

– Intervention during the broadcast Sciences pour Tous