The LIONS Research Group within the UMR NIMBE, at CEA Saclay
LIONS is interested in the physical and chemical mechanisms that make it possible to obtain nanostructured materials. The aim of this research is to understand and thus better utilize the unique properties resulting from nanostructuring while guaranteeing a low environmental impact and safety of use (Safe by Design) by adapted synthesis methods. Rational design using statistical physics and modeling enables us to develop nanostructured materials and the methods to obtain them. Manufacturing and characterization are based on laboratory techniques (small-angle X-ray scattering, electron or atomic force microscopy, etc.), and also on large instruments (ESRF, Soleil, ILL) often coupled with microfluidics. The nanoparticles or nanostructured materials thus obtained are either directly useful in the fields of energy, environment or health, or constitute model systems which make it possible to advance knowledge in fields related to the interaction between materials and living organisms (nanotoxicity and nanomedicines) or physico-chemistry under radiation (photocatalysis, radiolysis). The laboratory’s activity results in the production of new knowledge (around thirty articles per year, numerous national and international conferences) and valorization actions (patents, licenses, start-ups) on the materials themselves and the original methods developed to design and characterize them.