Development of hierarchically structured materials, with fine control at different scales
This research axis focusses on the development of original methodologies to design new hierarchical three-dimensional materials and/or objects. These 3D hierarchically structured materials will be built from either pre-existing building blocks, or emergent ones obtained from our collegues researchers working in axis I. New properties (optical, electronic, mechanical…) will emerge from both the inherent functionalities of the building blocks and cooperative effects resulting from their assembly. For example, monomers with particular optical, biological or electronic functions can be designed and assembled by thermal or photochemical techniques into complex 3D structures, while metal, metal oxide, ceramic, polymeric nano- or microparticles with controlled shape, composition and surface chemistry can be used to give rise to supercrystals by spontaneous self-assembly. From such approaches, complex materials based on lipids, sugars, proteins, polymers, metals or composites could emerge as nano- or micromaterials useful for drug delivery systems, theranostics, photodynamic therapy, organic electronic devices or targeting, as well as larger materials for applications such as prosthesis, implants or catheters. In all these examples, the challenge is to control the morphology of the final object (outer dimensions, shape, texture), its inner structure (composition, homogeneity, gradients, spatial distribution of charges….) and to integrate the materials into functional devices.