Franck Camerel

Franck Camerel studied chemistry at the University of Nantes where he also received his PhD in 2001 for his works on mineral complex fluids at the “Institut des Matériaux Jean Rouxel” under the direction of Dr. Patrick Batail and Dr. Jean-Christophe Gabriel. He then moved to Max-Planck-Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (MPIKG) under the supervision of Prof. M. Antonietti and Dr. Charl Faul as a postdoctoral associate to work on the ionic self-assembly (ISA) process with charged organometallic molecules and inorganic cluster ions. In 2003, he was recruited as a CNRS researcher and joined Dr. Raymond Ziessel’s group where his research activities turn on the design and the synthesis of luminescent liquid crystals for application in optoelectronic and the study of the gelation properties of amphiphilic flurorophores functionalized by hydrogen bonding fragments. Since 2009, he started his independent research activity at the University of Rennes in the development of optically active metal-based molecular entities able to self-organize in solid-state or in solution for applications in optoelectronic and in biotechnologies.

• Synthesis of new liquid crystalline molecules with chelating fragments able to organize metals into original molecular architectures in solid state (metallomesogens).
• Research on mesogenic molecules with exceptional luminescent properties for applications in nanoelectronic, organic light emitting diodes and solar cells or as sensors, actuators.
• Synthesis of functional gelating molecules (organogelators and metallogelators) which can be stimulated by external constraints (light, heat, magnetic and electrical fields …).
• Synthesis of water-soluble molecules strongly absorbing in the near-IR region for photothermal therapy and photocontrolled drug delivery.

• Expertise in molecular organic and inorganic chemistry, including composite materials, surfactants, colloids, soft matter (lyotropic and thermotropic liquid crystal), low molecular weight organogelators.
• Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)
• Polarized optical microscopy (POM)
• Temperature-dependent epifluorescence studies
• Temperature-dependent Small angle X-ray diffraction (SAXS) (-200 °C – 350 °C) performed using a FR591 Bruker AXS rotating anode X-ray generator operated at 40 kV and 40 mA with monochromatic Cu K radiation ( = 1.541 Å) and point collimation. The patterns are collected with a Mar345 Image-Plate detector (Marresearch, Norderstedt, Germany).

Liquid crystals, Metallomesogens, Organogelators, Metallogelators, Supramolecular architecture, Ionic self-assembly, Thin films, Optical properties, Stimuli responsive materials, Soft-matter.