Self-immolative chemistry has undergone rapid development in the past decades and led to molecular systems that possesses stimuli-responsive releasing properties. The unique self-immolative spacers serve as the fundamental component at these systems. They covalently link reagent-responsive group and a reporter moiety and can structurally “sacrifice” themselves in order to implement their designated function.

The principal goal of the La Pierre group synthetic and X-ray absorption spectroscopic (XAS) studies is to disentangle the complex electronic structure of f-block materials. Definitive spectroscopic and thermodynamic signatures of electronic structure phenomena unique to lanthanide, actinide, and transuranic materials are lacking.