Institut Charles Sadron SAMS
Highly elaborated performances characterizing living systems result from both multiple levels of hierarchical organization and time-dependent processes. One of the greatest challenges facing supramolecular chemistry, in particular at its frontiers with physics and biology, is to design molecules in order to spontaneously build (bio)materials with new functional properties at different scales. Nowadays, this so-called “bottom-up” approach in nanoscience can be envisioned by exploiting the programmed self-organization of molecules. Our research group is interested in understanding and controlling self-assembly processes including their dynamics and cooperative effects. This knowledge is expected to generate complex systems, capable of interacting and of adapting to their environment by emergence phenomena. From an application point of view, such properties will be necessary to design the next generation of so-called smart materials.
The SAMS research group innovates in this fundamental field of research by developing new tools in synthetic organic chemistry, supramolecular chemistry, and self-assembled materials.