The material in question is the result of self-organization on a substrate of copper, organic molecules (1.4-benzenedicarboxylic acid) and iron atoms, which ultimately creates a square of 1.5 nm hand, atoms of iron. They showed that the adsorption of oxygen allows the tilting of the easy magnetization direction of the iron atoms, thus opening prospects for control of the magnetic anisotropy of Supramolecular layers, similar to that of thin metal films.

A study by the IHK with companies has shown that in the field of nanotechnology, there is a lack of transfer of scientific results to industry for the implementation of innovative or optimized. The launch of this cluster is the result. Approximately 100 companies have already expressed the desire to participate in this collaboration within the cluster. According to Prof.. Dieter Spath, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute IAO, “companies will not only benefit the future of the immense potential of nanotechnology that if they work closely with the scientific world.” That is what has set the cluster, thus enabling companies from different areas to enjoy the potential of nanotechnology, whether in the car or the environment.

Many sources of support and incentive for R & D in nanosciences and nanotechnologies exist. On the advice of the Council for Research and Technological Development (RFT – HCST equivalent in France), the “Nano Initiative” was established in 2004 to harmonize the various initiatives. The program is managed by the funding agency for applied research (FFG) on behalf of the Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT) and in close consultation with a large part of the policy landscape of the research (ministries, provincial governments, funding agencies etc.)..

With the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OAW), is also the BMVIT via the draft NanoTrust to promote a responsible approach to nanotechnology. The project team continuously collects information on environmental hazards and public health and then try to clarify some issues and communicate on the state of the art in this field.

Finally, Austria is preparing for the end of 2009 a plan of action in the field of nanotechnology led by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water, in partnership with several other ministries in charge of R & D, health, economy and environment.

NANO Initiative

The program includes the following lines of action: R & D projects involved a program of research (eg NSI, Nano-Health, NANOCAT, Isotec, NANOCOMP, PHONE, PLATON), and communication networks , human resources and infrastructure, projects and individuals. The R & D accounted for 83% of funding, approximately 10 million per year.

The two led to the discovery, Alain Jonas and Hu Zhijun of the unit de Physique et of Chime des Haunts Polymers (POLY) from UCL, has received financial support from the company Solvay through Louvain Foundation to enable them to develop their work. This research is subject to a patent application. A scientific article was published in December in the journal Nature Materials.

Currently, most electronic devices or store their digital information on hard disks or flash memories. Their size has steadily declined in recent years, but these systems remain expensive and inflexible.

POLY The unit is part of the Department of Materials Science and Processes of the Faculty of Applied Sciences at UCL. The laboratory brings together more than fifty people, including 10 academic and scientific standing, 15 permanent engineers or technicians and more than 30 post-docs, PhD students and trainees. The research themes of unity POLY are centered around the synthesis, assembly and characterization of macromolecular organic materials. Its research activities aim to develop and characterize macromolecular systems by controlling their structure and organization on three levels: molecular, micro and nano.

Louvain Foundation’s mission is to provide key support to the development of the UCL. Since 1999, the Foundation promotes Louvain UCL projects by providing financial support, a catalyst for its development ambitions in research, training, internationalization, and more recently culture.

The discovery thermoelectricity was then understood in the nineteenth century. In 1821, German Thomas Johann Seebeck noticed and an electric potential difference appears at the junction of two conductive materials subjected to a temperature difference. This physical phenomenon can convert heat directly into electricity or, conversely, create a flow of heat from an electric current.

But thermoelectric plants so far suffered from a high cost and low yields. The materials used have to offer both an excellent electrical conductivity, low thermal conductivity and a good thermoelectric power (Seebeck coefficients, Peltier and Thomson). The energy and environmental circumstances have relaunched the current research on these materials significantly. The results presented by the University of Aarhus, Copenhagen University and the laboratory RISØ from the Technical University of Denmark are part of this new wave and should help to accelerate research in the world.

Their study describes in fact precisely why some materials may be very low Thermally without their electrical properties are provided degraded. Understanding this phenomenon could be crucial, especially for the recovery of heat from the engines. According to Bo Iversen INANO Laboratory, University of Aarhus, optimum use of thermoelectric materials to help reduce consumption of our vehicles. Manufacturers also announce soon the production of the first models using this technology.

Their research work has focused on the properties of one of the thermoelectric materials of the most promising family of clathrates, which the crystal is filled with nano-cages.

“By placing a heavy atom in the heart of each nano-cage, we knew that we could reduce the ability of the crystal conduct heat,” explains Asger Abrahamsen, a researcher at the laboratory RISØ. “We thought that the random movements of atoms in the cage were solely responsible for the phenomenon.”

The researchers used the technique of neutron scattering which allows to observe the movements of atoms within the material. They understood that the thermoelectric properties were in fact determined by the global movement of nano-cage structure, which is influenced by the heavy atom therein. This discovery should be exploited for the development of new energy efficient materials.

Liangbing Hu, David Hecht, and Georges Grun, physicists at the University of California at Los Angeles, have studied the infrared properties of thin films based on carbon nanotubes, single wall, optically transparent and conductive. According to the team, this is the first scientific study of its kind, combining measurements and calculations on this system.

During experiments, they found that these films have a unique ability to transmit infrared waves. The electrodes based on nanotubes and graphene electrodes have outperformed various other materials in several categories, opening a variety of applications. These films were obtained by dispersing the nanotubes in an aqueous solution with a surfactant and then spraying the substance obtained on substrates heated. Illuminating in the infrared, the scientists found that the films maintained an average transmission rate of over 90% over a wide range of wavelengths from 450 nm to 20 M.?

This very good infrared transmission could improve the effectiveness of infrared solar cells. Much of the solar energy is at wavelengths greater than the micron. These transparent films as well as in graphene allow transmission of much of this infrared energy to the active layer. With the lowest level of reflection (<10%) among those tackled in the study, these films have the advantage of not requiring anti-reflection coating. In addition, these films have large wavelength cutoff, which could make them particularly useful for applications in the far infrared. The films can also serve as electrodes for a variety of industrial and military applications, such as infrared imaging, sensors and modulators for fiber communications. The team plans to explore the use for infrared cameras.

Working at the molecular level, the researchers relied on the tendency of certain combinations of molecules to repel each other at close contact, effectively suspending one surface above another by a microscopic distance.

The new technique may prove useful to the emerging field of nanomechanics – the development of microscopic machinery. Named for the nanometer – one billionth of a meter – nanomachinery would operate on the molecular level. By altering and combining molecules, tiny machines and even robots could be devised to perform surgery, manufacture food and fuel, and boost computing speed.

“The emerging technology of nanomechanics has the potential to improve medicine and other fields,” said Duane Alexander, M.D., director of the NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). “By reducing the friction that hinders motion and contributes to wear and tear, the new technique provides a theoretical means for improving machinery at the microscopic and even molecular level.”

The study appears in the Jan.8 issue of Nature.

The research was conducted by Jeremy N. Munday and Federico Capasso of Harvard University, and V. Adrian Parsegian, Ph.D., head of the Section on Molecular Biophysics at the NICHD.

Dr. Parsegian explained that, analogous to the way like poles of magnets repel each other, certain combinations of molecules generate repulsive electrical forces that will prevent them from coming in contact with each other under certain conditions.

In their study, the researchers brought a tiny gold-plated sphere in contact with a flat glass surface, separating them with a liquid known as bromobenzene. At close distances, the molecular forces of the two surfaces, when in the presence of bromobenzene, repelled each other, so that the molecules of gold and glass never came in direct contact with each other and were separated by a few nanometers.

On the amount of 2.9 million, the building was financed to the tune of:

1 450 000 by the Regional Council of Aquitaine;
1 015 000 euros of European Development Fund (ERDF);
435 000 of the University of Bordeaux 1.

These channels lasers are designed to help control the fusion of elements to produce clean energy.
The intense proton beams generated by these lasers used also to treat patients with previously inoperable tumors.

According to Alain Rousset, “is primarily a scientific and human gamble on the future.” Indeed, the arrival of Megajoule Laser (LMJ) and the Laser Petawatt Petal, Aquitaine will make the greatest potential of lasers power “of Europe.
A policy to support innovation and research

In addition to financing the building of the ILP, the district has a policy for research as shown:
support for the structuring of the ILP project management and financing of the petals up to 22 million support for teams of two research laboratories, the Center lasers and intense applications (CELIA) in Talence, and the Center for Nuclear Studies in Bordeaux-Gradignan (CENBG) or the financing of the extension of the exhibition hall which is set in the model of the laser chain Megajoule for a total of 185 000 €.

Developed countries like France and the United States have established networks of technology centers equipped with machines and means of characterizing ultra-sophisticated, placed in a controlled environment, and made available to the scientific community for the to help conduct its research and development projects. The functioning and coordination of such technology raises many issues related to new investments in distribution, to support operating costs, personnel management and maintenance.

It is in this context that the Office of Science and Technology has proposed to the leaders of major French power to visit some sites in the United States to enable them to analyze the operational models adopted by their American colleagues and ” draw the appropriate lessons to optimize our own device. From 15 to 20 June 2008, a group research director CNRS and CEA responsible for developing nanotechnology in France, visited the USA several important sites of nanofabrication set up by the federal government to provide the scientific community of technological performance. The objective was to analyze the operational models adopted for these plants, and to confront those used in France.

This document presents the context of these visits and at site describes the characteristics of technology platforms visited. Key points of how Americans could be useful in developing the French network.