After attending ‘Preparatory Classes (‘Classes Préparatoires’) where he gained basics in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, Florian Allouche was accepted into the the ENS (Ecole Normale Supérieure) in Lyon, France, through a selection exam as a ‘Normalien’ (which implied his 4 years of study would be funded by the French Department for Research), giving him the opportunity to strengthen his understanding in Physics but more especially in Chemistry. His bachelor degree project focused on the production of quadrupolar probes for Non Linear Optic with Yann Bretonnière (ENS Lyon). He realized his interest in the field of organometallic chemistry during his master course, while on a three months internship within the research group of Prof. Dr. Christophe Copéret (ETH Zürich), aimed at targeting the development of lanthanide siloxides as thermolytic precursors, while his master thesis focused on developing thiolate based metathesis catalysts.
| Home Country | France |
| Project Topic | Characterization of functional materials based on paramagnetic metal centers with application in catalysis and bio- imaging |
| Project Description | The Ziegler-Natta process is a key process of the petrochemical industry because it produces a large part of polyethylene. Yet today, the structure of the catalyst active sites is unknown. The development of the catalyst has thus remained empirical and would greatly benefit from a molecular understanding of the active sites. Our long term collaboration has lead to numerous successes in the past with the characterization of surface sites by NMR, the presence of paramagnetic Ti(III) broadens the NMR spectra and leads to unpredictable chemical shifts. In collaboration with Dr. Guido Pintacuda (C- RMN, Lyon), Dr. Vladimir Malkin (Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava) and Prof. Dr. Martin Kaupp (Technische Universitat Berlin), our goal will be to develop molecular approaches to obtain “well-defined” Ziegler-Natta catalyst with a detailed characterization through the development of paramagnetic NMR spectroscopy, the ultimate goal being the rational design of catalysts with predictable surface site signatures |
| Project Home | Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETHZ) |
| Supervisor | Christophe Copéret |
| Starting Date | September 2013 |
| Publications | |
| Meetings | pNMR Applied Training Course, September 2013, Lyon, France Title: Solid-state NMR of materials and proteins Role: participant pNMR Workshop, September 2013, Chamonix, France Multidisciplinary Workshop #1, joint with Bruker pre-Alpine Conference Title:’Pushing the Envelope of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy for Paramagnetic Systems. A Combined Experimental and Theoretical Approach’ Role: participant pNMR Applied Training Course, September 2014, Cambridge, UK Title: “pNMR of Inorganic Materials and Bioinorganic Systems” Role: participant pNMR Workshop, September 2014, Cambridge, UK Multidisciplinary Workshop #2 Title: “New Developments in Experimental and Theoretical Techniques for the Study of Paramagnetic Inorganic Materials”/span> Role: participant pNMR Mid-Term Review Meeting, September 2014, Cambridge, UK Role: participant Complementary Skills Course, given by the RSC, September 2014, Cambridge, UK Title: How to write, edit a scientific paper and get it published Role: participant pNMR Complementary Skills Training, July 2015, Prague, CZ Title: Personal Skills, conference presentation and Communication Role: participant |
| Secondments | 05-30/05/2014 (and every month on May) : CNRS, Lyon, France; 01-30/09/2014 (and every month of September) : Bruker, Germany; Dec 15-Feb 16 : Bratislava. |