The BioFiReaDy project aims at investigating mechanical dysfunction and airway clearance efficiency (or lack thereof) of the respiratory system, by a quantitative analysis of mucus motion. A large part of the project is dedicated to healthy configuration, cystic fibrosis (mucoviscidosis) and epithelium dysfunction consequent to consumption of cilia inhibiting drugs (eg nicotine) or recurrent virus and/or bacteria attack. Nevertheless, a large class of diseases is concerned by alteration of mucus mobility, as shown on figure 1.2 of scientific document. Mucus is a visco-elastic fluid secreted by the respiratory epithelium (see figure 1.1 of the proposal) that protects tracheo-bronchial tree mucosa from dehydration and traps inhaled particles (allergens, carcinogens, dust, micro-organisms, and inflammatory debris) that come into contact with it. Ciliary motions that are associated with mucus propulsion in the human respiratory tract cleans airways, as it flows from either the tracheo-bronchial tree or upper airways toward the pharynx, where it is swallowed (or expectorated). Strong mucus mobility is necessary to provide satisfying airway clearance and healthy behaviour of respiratory system. Otherwise either proliferation of pathogen agents is observed in stagnant mucus, either lack of mucoïd film let pathogens slip through pulmonary membrane. Its motion can be altered by its rheometry, thickness, geometry, epithelium vibration features (cilia motion) or respiration cycle alterations. The material used for this project is mainly computer biological flow simulation, followed by clinical validation. The mucus layer itself is in the micrometre scale, while the cilia of epithelium cells is close to nanometre, and air circulation and pulmonary tree goes from millimetre to centimetre. The project will also focus on the efficient coupling of these different scales. This project is hold by Toulouse Institute of Mathematics, and involves people from CHU Toulouse-Larrey, Lab. Jean Kuntzmann (Grenoble), Lab. Jacques-Louis Lions (University of Paris VI, and INRIA Team REO), and School of Natural Science, University of California Merced (USA).

The aim of our project is to develop a new ultrasensitive method of magnetic measurements based on optimized carbon nanotube electromechanical resonators (CNTERs). More specifically, the CNTERs will be used as force detectors in order to measure the interaction between a magnetic field and a magnetic nanoparticle (MNP) grafted on the nanotube surface. This new and original approach of magnetometry would allow us to perform a direct measurement of the magnetic hysteresis loop of a single nanoparticle chemically synthesized with a magnetic moment below 1000 Bohr magneton (µB) on broad temperature and magnetic field ranges. Since yet, the major part of magnetic studies of nanoparticle elaborated by chemical routes are made on assemblies with macroscopic techniques (SQUID). It implies that the individual properties are hidden or averaged by several distributions, i.e. size, shape and chemical and by the magnetic interaction between nanoparticles. The improvement or the development of new techniques with high sensitivity adapted for objects prepared by chemistry routes remain a fundamental challenge. From a technical point of view, the so called microsquid technique enabled measuring the magnetic properties of a single nanoparticle which magnetic moment is around 1700µB in a limited range of field and temperature. More recently, resonant magnetic force microscopy and magnetotransport measurements succeed in the measure of the single MNP spin dynamics in very peculiar field conditions. CNTERs have a high sensitivity as mass or force sensors as recently demonstrated by the coordinator B. Lassagne. Indeed, carbon nanotubes can measure the weight of a single atom at low temperature which means that they are the most sensitive nanobalance made so far. Thus, CNTERs constitute also the most sensitive force detectors and are excellent candidates to build an ultra sensitive magnetic detector. As a matter of fact, preliminary calculations made by the coordinator show that the current fabricated devices could be used as a magnetic detector with sensitivity as low as few µB at low temperature which would surpass the existing techniques. To our knowledge, this ambitious project has so far no equivalent, neither at the European or international level. One of the main reasons of this singularity is the requirement for a strong collaboration between fields as wide as the physics of carbon nanotube, the chemical synthesis of well-controlled MNPs and the nanomagnetism. The « Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie des Nano-objets » (LPCNO) which regroups chemists and physicist specialists of the chemical synthesis and the magnetic studies of nano-object is well armed to support this project. The objectives of the project are: 1/ the development of highly sensitive CNTERs. 2/ the chemical synthesis of MNP and their addressing onto the CNTER thanks to two different techniques: the electrospray technique and the deposition by nanodispensing of a liquid thanks to a modified atomic force microscopy tip. 3/ magnetometry on a single MNP.

INANOPROCE aims at studying by high-level quantum calculations the impacts of chemical environments on the properties of iron nanoparticles (NPs). This project is interdisciplinary since it addresses, beyond the computation of realistic iron NPs, both physical and chemical properties of these NPs. It rely on complementary of skills of the coordinator and collaborators of the project as well the interdisciplinary of the laboratory that houses this project. The study of environmental effects such as surface default, ligand co-adsorbed at the surface and/or atoms included in the core of the NPs confers the originality and challenge to the project. The proposal is divided into four main tasks: (i) the preliminary creation of a model database for iron NPs; (ii) the study of morphology changes of iron NPs induced by ligands e.g. chlorine, amines, hydrides, carbonyl; (iii) the study of the influence of adsorbed species on nanomagnetism; (iv) and finally the study of initial steps in the complex Fischer-Tropsch synthesis that converts syngas (H2 + CO) to liquid hydrocarbon fuels. Our first objective is the constitution of a representative database of NP surface models, using both a slab approach and small nanoclusters, suited for the study of adsorption process of simple surface species. If slab models of low-index surfaces are nowadays well defined, in terms of layer’s number, choices of vacuum distances between the repeated images of the slab, the study of H, C, O, CO, Cl-, NH4+ adsorption for instance at intermediate and large coverage values is still missing. Besides co-adsorption effects remain completely unknown and requires large computational efforts. After a series of calculations on adsorption processes, it is indeed possible to define surface energies, related to the chemical potential of adsorbed species. By varying the coverage values, the nature of the species, one can draw phase diagrams and define domains of relative stability of phases. Additionally, disposing of surface energy values in several environment, will allow us to construct the equilibrium shape of NPs. This objective will be tackle in close connection with dedicated experiments made by the synthesis group of the lab, in a fruitful theoretical and experimental synergy. Once the ligands/surface studied, the next step is to analyze the magnetization’s evolution with respect to the chemical environment. This will afford general trends and extrapolation of the magnetic behavior as a function of surface ligands. This part will answer: which types of surface species alter the magnetization? Which ones enhance surface magnetization? How deep are the effects? Can one find theoretical arguments to explain those general trends? Note that such a systematic theoretical could definitively help experimentalists to develop new synthesis ways in the hope to tune magnetic properties of NPs. The final aim of this project is to study the molecular mechanism the first two key steps of the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, namely CO adsorption/decomposition leading to iron-carbide, and carbide hydrogenation: reactions that occur at the interface of iron NPs. Experimentally and theoretically, the influence of the iron environment on these two steps are the less studied and clear. Based on energy profile and geometry optimization, this task will offer a detailed picture, of the chemical process that initiates the FP synthesis and will bring insights in the environmental criteria that favors or disfavors the entitled reactions. Fulfilling each of these four objectives will ensure the complete success of this project from which new opportunities for the design and study of iron NPs will arise.

Up to very recently, truly two-dimensional systems (i.e. formed by a single sheet of atoms) were though to be thermodynamically unstable and could not exist in the free state. They were presumed to quickly curve or bend to produce novel and more stable nanostructures such as nano-cages. However, this common belief was contradicted in 2004 for the first time by the experimental isolation of graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms with exceptional electronic properties. Due to its peculiar hexagonal crystallographic structure, it was realized long ago that electrons in graphene obey the Dirac equation describing the dynamic of relativistic massless particles. But only recently these theoretical predictions received an experimental support, which triggered a general enthusiasm among the scientific community. Since then, much progress has been made and the physics of graphitic systems is rapidly expanding. Nevertheless, their special electronic properties are far from being completely understood nowadays and many questions still need to be addressed, both from an experimental as from a theoretical viewpoint. Furthermore, the discovery of graphene, first extracted using a simple multi-exfoliation technique, opened the route towards the characterization of other 2D candidate compounds, namely lamellar materials such as Boron Nitride (BN). Surprisingly, little have been done in this field which, although being considered as explorative research, deserve a proper examination. As one is concerned with electronic properties of nano-systems, the application of a very high magnetic field is a powerful and well controlled method of investigation. Technically, either static or pulsed magnetic fields can be generated, each of them having specific advantages that requires a particular experimental setup. In this scope, the present project aims at taking advantage of both techniques, by a joined research effort involving the Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Pulsés (LNCMP) and the Grenoble High Magnetic Field Laboratory (GHMFL), through the development of 'state of the art' magneto-experiments such as electronic transport, photo-conductivity, Infra-Red transmission and micro-Raman characterisations.