Recent technological developments have expanded and intensified the use of metals in domains as diverse as renewable energy, computing, and medicine. Among those metals, technology-critical elements (TCEs, including lanthanides) are essential, but scarcer or produced by only a handful of countries. On the other end of their lifecycle, recycling and disposal of technological waste also raise the question of the impact of these metals on environment and human health. Understanding the mechanisms of interaction of TCEs with life could inform the development of bio-inspired technologies and innovative strategies for their extraction, recycling, and remediation. Nevertheless, identifying protein-metal interactions remains challenging due to the transient character of this interaction. Here, we propose a modular approach for the labelling of proteins interacting with lanthanides. We will synthesize molecular probes composed of a detection module for the metal, a tag module to label the interacting protein, and an activatable linker that will enable the labelling of the protein only if interacting with a metal. We will then assess the efficacy of those probes in vitro on isolated proteins. Finally, once a proof-of-concept is established, we will apply these chemical tools to investigate the metal interactome in mammalian cells. We will thus decipher what are the key biological interactors of TCEs, their roles in living systems and the features that enable efficient binding to metals. We expect that our findings will give insights into the toxicology of those elements and inform environmental and occupational safety policies. On the longer term, new bio-inspired strategies for their extraction, recycling, decorporation and remediation will arise from the molecular understanding of metal-life interactions, enabling a well thought-out usage of these elements to support the environmental and numerical transitions.

The project aims to create novel nanocomposites based on nanocrystals and nanoclusters of metal halide perovskites encapsulated in ordered mesoporous silica and zeolites. These eco-friendly lead-free materials based on tin and bismuth perovskites are expected to have high stability and excellent optical properties. The nanocomposites will be characterized by structural, photophysical and physicochemical methods and studied by theoretical simulations in order to understand the formation of perovskite clusters and their interaction with porous matrices as well as the quantum confinement phenomena and the relationship between their optical properties and size, morphology and composition. The ultimate objective of the project is to use these nanocomposites for the efficient and robust photocatalytic reduction of CO2 in the gas phase into the solar fuels such as CO or syngas.

Understanding the chemical processes involved in enzymes is a challenge that requires, in most cases, the use of complementary experimental techniques. This knowledge is often crucial for the development of biotechnological applications. The aim of the IRMA application is to perform a precise structural and temporal characterization, associated with a clear spectroscopic signature of the different radical intermediates involved in the protein HydE. The latter belongs to the so-called radical SAM enzyme superfamily and is a key player in the FeFe hydrogenase active site assembly machinery. To achieve this, we aim at coupling electron paramagnetic resonance and time-resolved serial-crystallography combined with theoretical QM/MM calculations to both establish the chemical mechanism of the enzyme and characterize the structural motions at play. In addition to a fundamental contribution to the understanding of key steps in the reactivity of this enzyme, notably the role of the protein matrix in the control of these processes, the associated methodological developments will open the way to the dynamic structural study of many oxygen-sensitive metalloenzymes. Such implementation of dynamics in structural studies is a major challenge to better understand how these enzymes really work with many potent applications.

Quantum Dots (QDs) have emerged as promising candidates for applications in photocatalysis thanks to their intense and tunable absorption in the visible range, associated with wide quantum confinement-enhanced redox potentials and low photobleaching. Since 2015, the complexity and variety of reported QDs photocatalyzed reactions has been increasing rapidly (e.g. C-C and C-N bond formations). A major limitation to the use of such QDs photocatalyzed reactions in the industry is the unwished process of recombination of charges in photoexcited QDs, which leads to low quantum yields for the reaction, so that its completion requires hours of visible light irradiation. The QDotNHC project aims at improving the photocatalytic efficiency of QDs through an enhanced photoinduced charge separation and extraction from the QDs, by grafting advanced N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) as efficient exciton delocalizing ligands (EDL). Advanced functionalized NHC ligands will be engaged in the QDotNHC project in order to access two new types of QD-NHC nano-objects with efficient charge extraction/separation, namely: 1/ QDs functionnalized by redox-active NHC ligands as channels for extracting photogenerated charges, 2/ Dyads of QDs connected by Janus bis-NHC ligands (QD1-JanusNHC-QD2). The QDotNHC project will target first the synthesis of these new nano-objects, then the tuning of their electronic properties in order to optimize the exciton delocalization and the charges separation. At last they will be tested for improving well-established QDs redox photocatalytic reactions and, eventually, their ability to give access to new reactivities will be explored.

The HEROES-Li project aims to design new "all solid" electrolytes for lithium-ion battery technology by combining the intrinsic properties of polysiloxane materials and ionomers. These new generation of electrolytes will allow more efficient and safer storage of electrical energy. The ionic conduction provided by the ionic Li+ groups carried by the main Sol-Gel phase will be assisted by the non-binding doublets of the oxygen atoms of the SG phase but also by the ionic Li+ groups of the host membrane. These hybrid membranes will be obtained by direct impregnation of the host ionomer membrane without dissolution. The host membrane will thus have a structuring effect on the growth of the SG phase thanks to its well-defined conduction paths. An in-depth multi-scale characterization of the physicochemical properties of the obtained hybrid membranes will be carried out in order to determine the structure/ionic transport/durability relationships.