Scientific Organisers UOC Organiser:
Beatrice Ruta, UCB Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France

ESRF Organisers:
Hiram Castillo-Michel
Sylvain Bohic
Ana Pradas del Real
Giulia Veronesi
Keynote Speakers Dr. Claudia Tortiglione, ISASI CNR, Italy
Dr. Bernhard Hesse, Xploraytion GmbH, Germany
Dr. Mélanie Auffan, CEREGE-Labex SERENADE, France
Prof. Laurent Charlet, UGA- IsTerre, France
Administrative Assistants Catherine Blanc
Contact  udm2-um20@esrf.fr

 

Programme

Aim & Scope

At the cutting edge of material research, nanomaterials (NMs) are today designed and used in a wide number of technological applications and consumer products. These objects, having at least one dimension smaller than 100 nm, owe their enhanced physical-chemical properties to the high surface-to-volume ratio, which makes them suitable for high-performance applications ranging from energy conversion to personalized medicine. However, nanomaterials are not only employed in cutting-edge technology, but also in every day products including dietary and cosmetics, for instance as food additives or antibacterial agents. This massive and increasing use raises questions about the disposal of NMs, their environmental fate, as well as about their impact on human health.

Synchrotron techniques based on X-ray diffraction, absorption, and imaging can do much for the characterization of NMs all over their life cycle. On the one hand they can help to disclose the properties of pristine NMs (elemental composition, crystallinity, reactivity), driving their design and applications. On the other hand, they can provide unique information on the transformations of NMs in the environment and in living organisms, contributing to risk-assessment and to the development of safer-by-design nanotechnologies. This is why several ESRF users’ communities, belonging to diverse scientific fields, share a common interest in NMs research.

The aim of this micro-symposium is to bring together scientists working in all related fields (nanotechnology, environmental science, chemistry, biology, medicine, pharmacy, agricultural science...) that make use of the different techniques offered by the ESRF to disclose the structure, chemistry, and the fate of NMs. These experiments require high performance setups, due to the size of the investigated object (e.g. single-particle studies), or to its low concentration (e.g. environmental or biological exposure). Users are invited to present their research and share their experimental methods, in such a way that different communities can discuss about the past and future opportunities offered by the ESRF, with particular attention to the EBS, in nanomaterials research.