Understand the fundamentals and elementary structures, "from the atom to the basic brick":

Nanoscale materials have specific properties due to size effects and quantum confinement. The objective of this first part is multiple. From the fundamental point of view, it is to investigate the quantum properties of molecules and objects with at least one nanometric dimension (surfaces, nano-objects, etc.). The assembly or combination of such objects is partly driven by the surface properties that control their interactions.

This axis of the institute is thus divided into four blocks respectively devoted to:

• Chemistry at the molecular scale (methodology, synthesis and characterization of original molecular building blocks),
• Theoretical and experimental study of nano-objects such as nanoparticles, nanotubes, nanoribbons,
• The fundamental study of surface and interface properties,
• The study of the properties of condensed matter at the nanometric scale.

Assembling, combining, structuring to develop new materials:

The assembly or association of molecules or objects of nanometric size makes it possible to fabricate meso or macroscopic, organic and inorganic materials with new or even non-existent properties in nature. Such artificial architectures allow the development of nanomaterials (new 2D materials, thin films, assemblies of molecules or nano-objects, micelles, material/molecule conjugates of biological interest) or meta-materials (nanostructured or nanocomposite volumetric or surface materials, etc.) and lead to a new look at natural materials (bio-inspired materials)

This axis of the Institute is thus divided into 4 blocks:

• Supra and macromolecular chemistry (design, synthesis and characterization of materials with controlled architecture and composition),
• The study of the physical mechanisms of synthesis, growth, assembly and nanostructuring,
• Fabrication, characterization and study of nanomaterials (2D materials, thin films, bio-inspired materials)
• The development of meta-materials (whose properties, unknown in nature, depend on the assembly and/or structuring) or so-called functionalized materials essential for the development of innovative devices and finding numerous applications in fields with strong scientific and socio-economic spin-offs such as microelectronics, the environment, energy and health.

Innovating to develop new applications:

The assemblies and or combinations of nanostructures and/or nano-objects thus produced must lead to the realization of new devices exploiting properties specific to the nanometric and/or quantum scale.

This axis of the institute is thus divided into 4 blocks related to :

• The development of organic or molecular electronics (electronics on flexible supports, OLEDs, etc.),
• The realization of emerging devices (in particular for the production and storage of energy),
• Nanoelectronics (ultimate architectures, spintronics, quantum electronics),
• Nano-photonics (nano-antennas, plasmonics, quantum nano-optics, etc.)
  
  One of the objectives is to develop devices based on inexpensive, non-toxic and abundant materials, but with new properties.