This lesson illustrated the scientific fusion that has taken place between the polymer community and that of researchers developing sol-gel processes based on soft inorganic chemistry. Historically, the two communities initially developed hybrid materials combining organic polymers and metal oxo-polycondensates resulting from condensation reactions of inorganic precursors, mainly metal alkoxides and organo-alkoxides. The polymer community, in search of new mineral fillers to improve the mechanical properties of composites, was quick to make use of soft chemistry, which enabled nanometric silica to be dispersed in situ and organo-mineral interfaces (the interface between reinforcing filler and polymer) to be better controlled, via hydrogen bond networks or covalent bonds using macromonomers functionalized with alkoxysilane groups. Cunningly, polymerists developed interpenetrating hybrid networks, giving rise to solid parts or shrink-free films, by polymerizing the solvent in which the inorganic polycondensation reaction takes place. The sol-gel community, for its part, developed the use of monomer-functionalized nanofillers (oxo-metallic clusters, nanoparticles) to synthesize hybrid nanocomposites starting from a perfectly defined mineral core (a filler). It has also been able to apply the phase separation processes familiar to polymerists, to synthesize bimodal porosity inorganic materials for high-performance chromatographic supports. But it wasn't until the mid-90s that the two communities began to collaborate more intensively. These collaborations have led to many fruitful discoveries, and to the development of complex, functional materials with highly interesting optical, mechanical and electrical properties.
16:00 - 17:00
Lecture
Sol-gel and polymers for a wide variety of functional assemblies : the construction of " tailor-made" materials
Clément Sanchez
16:00 - 17:00
