Executive Summary : | The study aims to design and develop chiral lanthanide molecular materials capable of emitting circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) for chiral biorecognition. The chiral capping ligands induce chiroptical activity and dissymmetry, and the structural rigidity and coordination geometry of lanthanide complexes facilitate strong CPL in the visible region. The changes in the chiroptical signal will allow the study of the chiral probe upon interaction with different biomolecules. The design involves introducing chirality through readily available enantiopure amino acids and other biomolecules, coupled with aromatic quinoline or naphthalic anhydride scaffolds to enhance photophysical properties. When lanthanide ions bound by a chiral ligand, depending on its coordination geometry, structural rigidity, and f-f transitions, these exhibit CPL emission. The main experiments will involve synthesizing and characterization of new modular ternary lanthanide complexes conjugated by enantiopure organic/biomolecular chiral ligands using techniques such as NMR spectroscopy, EsI-Ms, and single crystal XRD. The photophysical and chiroptical properties will be evaluated by absorption, fluorescence, CD, and CPL spectroscopy. The project will assess electronic structural features by expanding combinatorial diversity, enabling systematic characterization of chiral lanthanide materials and establishing structure-function relationships. This new class of CPL-emitting materials could find applications in display devices, chiroptical sensors, and chiral bioimaging. |