Sanchez Clément

My work spans the areas of soft chemistry routes to nano-structured materials, template synthesis, “legolike chemistry”, designed construction of hierarchically structured inorganic and hybrid materials. My fundamental scientific motivations have always been associated with the design, synthesis and processing of original inorganic and hybrid organic-inorganic materials. Our strategies enabled us to follow the chemical evolution of molecular precursors and intermediates, to specify their reactivities, to establish the structure of the resulting metal oxides or non oxides, the obtained hybrid polymers and to control their micro- and nano-structures as well as their texture. Early on we became convinced of the high importance of coupling processing and chemistry. The quality of this coupling impacts the resulting morphological texture, structure and therefore the resulting material properties. We initiated entirely new approaches that marry template synthesis, soft chemistry, with a large variety of processes, including dipcoating, foaming, aerosol, ink-jet printing, electrospinning and reactive extrusion. These strategies allow us to put in practice many of our fundamental concepts, as demonstrated by the set of patents filed some of them with different industrial companies. The development of such materials yields innovative responses to societal concerns, mainly related to renewable energy and sustainable chemistry.