This Thesis reports the synthesis, purification and characterisation of gold nanoparticles (NPs) functionalised with a monolayer of hydrazone ligands in order to perform post-synthetic manipulations of the NP-bound monolayer exploiting dynamic covalent chemistry. NP post-synthetic manipulation based on reversible non-covalent interactions between oligonucleotides represents a promising approach to achieve functionalisation and self-assembly for potential applications in biology and medicine. However, the stability of these nanosystems is ensured only in a narrow window of environmental conditions. On the other hand, irreversible covalent strategies potentially allow the full range of synthetic chemistry to be exploited but they provide poor control over the manipulation of the NP-bound monolayer and can only produce kinetically controlled amorphous NP aggregates. Dynamic covalent chemistry represents an interesting and an attractive alternative approach because it would combine the reversibility of non-covalent interactions with the stability of covalent bonds. By this way, ligand-functionalised NPs could be manipulated in order to introduce a large variety of molecular functionalities on the NP surface not only to subtly tune the NP physicochemical properties but also to access an entire range of novel nanomaterials.

Only within the last decade has supramolecular chemistry begun to adopt the Group 15 elements into its field of research. This dissertation presents a supramolecular approach to the self-assembly and reactivity of Group 15 metalloids, specifically arsenic and antimony, with organothiolate ligands. Investigating the self-assembly of pnictogen-based coordination complexes allows for in-depth characterization of the chemical behavior of arsenic, antimony and other Group 15 elements. Currently, the infiltration of arsenic into global groundwater systems has developed into a worldwide health concern. There are no chelating agents available for public use in the treatment of arsenic poisoning which are capable of binding arsenic (III) in its preferred coordination geometry thereby hindering the selectivity for rapid chelation. Chapter I is a review covering two important characteristics observed in the Group 15 elements: 1) a stabilizing, non-covalent cation-π interaction aiding in the formation of pnictogen-aryl thiolates, and 2) an observed lack of selectivity in environments containing multiple pnictogen ions which enables transmetalation of the complexes to occur or the generation of heterometallic assemblies. Based on the discovery of this new transmetalation reactivity, the remainder of the dissertation explores the effects of external additives during self-assembly in order to understand how they may affect the reactivity of these self-assembled complexes and provide insight into formation mechanisms. Chapter II identifies a catalyst for the acceleration of a slow self-assembly reaction between AsCl3 and a dithiolate ligand to give an As2L3 cryptand. Chapter III examines the oxidation of the arsenic cryptand using iodine, which leads to the self-assembly of a series of differently sized, discrete disulfide-bridged macrocycles. In Chapter IV, the self-assembly of the first trinuclear arsenic- and antimony-based coordination complexes was studied, revealing interesting solvent dependent conformational isomerism in solution. Chapter V applies the pnictogen-enhanced iodine oxidation to the synthesis of known and new cyclophanes using supramolecular chemistry, including the self-assembly and covalent capture of an unprecedented tetrahedral thiacyclophane. Additionally, an unusual trithioorthoformate capped tricyclophane cage was also synthesized and isolated by pnictogen-activated oxidation. Chapter VI includes the conclusion and future directions for the project. This dissertation includes co-authored material and previously published results. / 10000-01-01

En Science des colloïdes, il est fondamental de contrôler les interactions entre les particules et leur environnement pour obtenir les propriétés souhaitées. Dans ce travail de thèse, pour former des systèmes innovants, nous avons utilisé la chimie covalente réversible à l'interface particule/polymère dans deux domaines différents : les composites vitrimères et la nanocatalyse. Dans les composites, les liens réversibles permettent d'améliorer les propriétés mécaniques tout en limitant l'impact des charges sur les propriétés vitrimères des matériaux. Deux matrices vitrimères reposant sur des réactions d'échange de nature différente, la transestérification et la transimination, ont été étudiées. L'avantage du lien imine est d'être également dissociable dans certaines conditions douces, ce qui facilite le recyclage des matériaux. La réversibilité du lien imine peut aussi être exploitée pour contrôler la dispersion/agrégation de particules en solvant. Lorsqu'elles sont liées, les chaines polymères se déploient en bon solvant et confèrent aux particules une stabilisation stérique, stabilisation qui disparait lorsqu'elles sont détachées : les particules s'agrègent et peuvent être récupérées facilement. Ce concept a été développé sur un système catalytique composé de nanoparticules de palladium supportées sur des particules de silice. Les chaines greffées améliorent non seulement la dispersion des nanocatalyseurs et les taux de conversion du système catalytique, mais aussi stabilisent les nanoparticules de palladium à la surface de la silice, limitant leur lessivage et leur agrégation. L'efficacité catalytique du système est ainsi conservée sur plusieurs cycles. / The control of the interactions between particles and their environment is essential when dealing with colloids in order to reach desired properties. In this study, reversible covalent bonds were used as interfacial interactions in two systems: vitrimer composite materials and nanocatalysis in solution. The aim of this work was to develop materials which present original properties thanks to interfacial dynamic bonds. In composites, the introduction of dynamic covalent bonds between a vitrimer matrix and the fillers enables to improve mechanical properties while preserving vitrimer properties. Two vitrimer matrices based on two different exchange reactions, transesterification or transimination, have been studied. Imine bonds are reversible bonds that can dissociate in presence of water. We demonstrate that polyimine vitrimers can be reshaped and recycled under mild conditions. The reversibility of the imine bond can also be used to control the stability of a colloidal dispersion. Indeed, grafting of polymers on particles surface through reversible covalent bonds give them steric stabilization in good solvent of the chains. Dissocation of these bonds triggers detachment of the polymer chains and induces particle aggregation. This concept was applied to a catalytic system composed of palladium nanoparticles adsorbed onto silica particles. Polymer chains not only improve the dispersion of the whole catalytic system but also limit the leaching and aggregation of the palladium nanoparticles. As a consequence, the catalytic efficiency of the particles can be preserved over several cycles.

Dans l'optique de préparer des vitrimères à partir des thermoplastiques communément utilisés, tels le PMMA et le PS, des réactions d'échange dynamiques reposant les liens imine et esters boroniques ont été étudiées. Des paramètres importants comme la constante de dissociation de certaines molécules, la constante de vitesse et l'énergie d'activation ont été mesurées. Des monomères porteurs de liaisons échangeables ont été synthétisés et polymérisés. Des vitrimères, avec des liaisons C-C dans la chaine principale, ont été créés par différentes stratégies (PMMA et PS). Ces matériaux sont réticulés et insolubles avec un plateau caoutchouteux mais également façonnables et recyclables par moulage par compression ou par injection. Ces vitrimères peuvent relaxer les contraintes et couler à une température supérieure à celle de leur transition vitreuse. Des viscosités de 105-107 Pa.s ont été estimées pour les vitrimères PMMA reposant sur la chimie des esters boroniques. Des tests de traction montrent que leurs propriétés mécaniques de ces matériaux ne subissent pas de baisse significative après plusieurs cycles de recyclage par moulage par injection. Même après plusieurs cycles de moulage, les vitrimères basés sur la chimie des esters boroniques peuvent être complètement dé-réticulés, signe de leur stabilité à haute température lors du moulage. Ces vitrimères ont une résistance supérieure dans les conditions "d'environmental stress cracking" comme des réseaux polymères conventionnels. / With the aim to generate vitrimers from commonly used thermoplastics with carbon-carbon based backbones, such as PMMA and PS, dynamic covalent exchange reactions relying on Schiff’s bases and boronic esters were investigated. Two different approaches, i.e. crosslinking in solution or in extrusion, were used. These materials are processable via extrusion, compression and injection molding like their thermoplastic counterparts. The crosslinked nature of these systems was confirmed by solubility tests and DMA. Rheological measurements revealed the vitrimers ability to flow and viscosities between 105-107 Pa.s for boronic ester based PMMA vitrimers were measured. Consecutive tensile testing/reprocessing sequences proved the full recyclability of these vitrimers, and selective cleavage of the vitrimer networks followed by precise chemical analyses showed the thermal and chemical stabilities of vitrimers relying on boronic ester bonds. The stress cracking resistance of these vitrimers was significantly higher than that of parent thermoplastics, as can be expected for crosslinked systems.

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The fluorination of porous materials often leads to the enhancement of properties such as stability, crystallinity and selective adsorption. Although there has been much interest in the fluorination of many types of porous materials, little research has been done on the fluorination of macrocycles, specifically trianglimine and leaning pillararene based materials. In this work, we introduce for the first time highly fluorinated trianglimine and leaning pillararene and show the enhancement effects brought about by the inclusion of fluorinated-phenyl moieties, such as increased stability, surface area, and tendency for self-assembly in our systems. We then show how our fluorinated macrocycles open the door for the formation of extended macrocycle-based polymetric materials simply and in high yields via nucleophilic aromatic substitution. We show for the first time the formation of a trianglimine-based cross-linked polymer and demonstrate its use for micropollutant and gas separation.

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La Chimie Dynamique Combinatoire basée sur les liaisions imines (-C=N-), avec l’aide de la chimie de coordination, donne accès à différentes types d’architectures metallosupramoléculaires et de réseaux dynamiques fonctionnels. Le travail effectué au cours de cette thèse traite de ces deux aspects. Dans un premier temps des structures de types grilles moléculaire et de type hélicate ont été synthétisés, à l’aide de métaux donnant une coordination octahédrale ou tétraédrale, et leurs propriétés dans un environnement dynamique ont été étudiées. Dans un deuxième temps des réseaux dynamiques, présentant des relations agoniste/antagoniste à travers l’échange des constituants aldéhydes et amines/hydrazines réseau, ont été étudiés. Ces systèmes permettent, à travers l’amplification d’un ou plusieurs constituants, une rééquilibration du réseau permettant l’implémentation de fonction tel que l’apprentissage et la prise de décision pour ces systèmes chimiques adaptifs. Un nouveau système, est présenté et étudié ici, permettant une redistribution stable même après le retrait du stimuli métallique (ajout/retrait d’un métal), permettant à ce système de réaliser un processing d’information : apprentissage, stockage, rappel et effacement. / Dynamic Combinatorial Chemistry of imine-based dynamic covalent bonds (-C=N-), under the governance of coordination chemistry, can lead to different metallosupramolecular architectures and responsive functional systems. In this work these two aspects have been approached. Grids and helicates architectures based on aldehydes and amines/hydrazines backbones have been synthesised, in order to probe their behaviour in a dynamic network environment, using both octahedral and tetrahedral coordinating metal cations. Dynamic systems can be also represented by dynamic networks that define agonistic and antagonistic relationships between different constituents linked through component exchange. These networks can be switched through amplification of the best fittest constituent(s) in a dynamic set, allowing to access higher level functions such as training, learning, and decision making for adaptive chemical systems. A novel multi responsive system, able to be trained for information storage, has been studied, exhibiting a stable distribution even after removal of the metal stimuli, making this system able to perform information processing operations: training, storage, recall, and erase.

Dynamic covalent chemistry (DCC) is currently exploited in several areas of biomedical applications such as in drug discovery, sensing, molecular separation, catalysis etc. Hydrazone and oxime chemistry have several advantages, such as mild reaction conditions, selectivity, efficiency, and biocompatibility and therefore, have the potential to be for bioconjugation applications. However, these reactions suffer from major drawbacks of slow reaction rate and poor bond stability under physiological conditions. In this regard, the work presented in this thesis focuses on designing novel bioconjugation reactions amenable under physiological conditions with tunable reaction kinetics and conjugation stability. The first part of the thesis presents different strategies of dynamic covalent reactions utilized for biomedical applications. In the next part, a detailed study related to the mechanism and catalysis of oxime chemistry was investigated in the presence of various catalysts. Aniline, carboxylate and saline were selective as target catalysts and their reaction kinetics were compared under physiological conditions (Paper I and II). Then we attempted to explore the potential of those chemistries in fabricating 3D hydrogel scaffolds for regenerative medicine application. A novel mild and regioselective method was devised to introduce an aldehyde moiety onto glycosaminoglycans structure. This involved the introduction of amino glycerol to glycosaminoglycans, followed by regioselective oxidation of tailed flexible diol without affecting the C2-C3 diol groups on the disaccharide repeating unit. The oxidation rate of the tailed flexible diol was 4-times faster than that of C2-C3 diol groups of native glycosaminoglycan. This strategy preserves the structural integrity of the glycosaminoglycans and provides a functional aldehyde moiety (Paper III). Further, different types of hydrazones were designed and their hydrolytic stability under acidic condition was carefully evaluated. The hydrazone linkage with the highest hydrolytic stability was utilized in the preparation of extracellular matrix hydrogel for delivery of bone morphogenetic proteins 2 in bone regeneration (Paper IV) and studied for controlled release of the growth factor (Paper III). In summary, this thesis presents a selection of strategies for designing bioconjugation chemistries that possess tunable stability and reaction kinetics under physiological conditions. These chemistries are powerful tools for conjugation of biomolecules for the biomedical applications.