5. Nanostructure synthesis

The ability to design, develop and use materials on a nanometric scale is one of the major driving forces behind 21st century technologies. Many innovations in future materials and their applications are the result of advances in nanotechnology (atomic-scale manipulation, structuring and functional synthesis of nano-objects, etc.).

For example, in the race to miniaturize electronic circuits (see Box 2), the development of components today already involves the use of nano-sized objects, whose physical properties are profoundly altered compared with those of the solid state.

Studying the physico-chemical properties of low-dimensional objects is therefore of great interest, both technologically (data storage, all-optical devices, waveguides, nanotribology, high-performance catalysts, etc.) and fundamentally (size effects and the impact of the...