Mission

The mission of the Soft Physics for Hard Materials research group is to gather the French community involved in the study of hard materials formed from soft materials.

This GDR covers all the steps of synthesis, processing and characterization of materials, whether for industrial materials (cement, low carbon concrete, catalysis support, ceramics, bioinspired composites, etc.) or biological materials (mother-of-pearl, collagen-based composites, etc.) involving various complex physical processes.

The objective of this GDR is to reflect on the possibility of playing on the microstructure and the mechanical or functional properties of a material in its soft form to better control its final properties in its hardened form. The aim of the project is to create a link between physical-chemists and colloidal engineering chemists for the fabrication of the building blocks used for self-assembly, soft matter and condensed matter physicists for the study of the microstructure and mechanical behavior of soft precursors and their hard counterpart, engineers and mechanics for the study of plasticity and fracture properties of hard materials, as well as communities working on the characterization of biological materials, which can serve as inspiration for industrial materials.

The GDR is hosted by Institut Lumière Matière (S. Deville), and funded by the Institut de Physique (INP) of the CNRS.

The Research Groups (GDR) are animation structures created for a period of five years, renewable once. These tools of the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research) have the common objective of promoting exchanges between CNRS scientists, academic partners, companies, and other stakeholders.

A list of the GDR of the Physics Institute of the CNRS can be found here