photographist

“Carbon is a very common element with which one can produce nanotubes with a diameter of one nanometer and a length up to centimeter. The nanotubes are in the form of soot in which they are entangled and unusable. We therefore process them into aqueous solutions with the help of surfactants. They form an ink and are much easier to use. They can be dried to make films or mixed with various chemicals to manufacture composite materials. For many years our group has coagulated nanotubes in a polymer dissolved in water, while stretching to make long fibers the size of a hair. This filament can be wound and used for manufacturing fabrics or other advanced materials.

A potential application of nanotubes is the production of transparent conductive films - for photovoltaic cells or touch screens for example. Today, the transparent electrode is made from indium, a very
expensive rare earth. Carbon nanotubes are a possible alternative. As a university professor, I very much appreciate contact with students. Transmission of knowledge requires thinking constantly about what we do - including communicating our own results to other researchers in the scientific community and presenting them at international conferences. For a woman, having a scientific career in the same way a man does requires equal sharing of domestic tasks which is still rare - women often have to manage the family part to allow their spouse to pursue his own career.”

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