A seminal paper [D. R. Nelson, Nano Lett., 2002, 2, 1125.] has proposed that a nematic coating could be used to create a valency for spherical colloidal particles through the functionalization of nematic topological defects. Experimental realizations however question the complex behaviour of solid particles and defects embedded in such a nematic spherical shell. In order to address the related topological and geometrical issues, we have studied micrometer-sized silica beads trapped in nematic shells. We underline the mechanisms that strongly modify the texture of the simple (particle-free) shells when colloidal particles are embedded. Finally, we show how the coupling between capillarity and nematic elasticity offers new ways to control the valence and directionality of shells.

The constituents of soft matter systems such as colloidal suspensions, emulsions, polymers, and biological tissues undergo microscopic random motion, due to thermal energy. They may also experience drift motion correlated over mesoscopic or macroscopic length scales, \textit{e.g.} in response to an internal or applied stress or during flow. We present a new method for measuring simultaneously both the microscopic motion and the mesoscopic or macroscopic drift. The method is based on the analysis of spatio-temporal cross-correlation functions of speckle patterns taken in an imaging configuration. The method is tested on a translating Brownian suspension and a sheared colloidal glass.

Droplets and bubbles coated by a protective armour of particles find numerous applications in encapsulation, stabilization of emulsions and foams, and flotation techniques. Here we study the role of a body force, such as in flotation, as a means of continuous encapsulation by particles. We use dense particles, which self-assemble into rafts, at oil-water interfaces. We show that these rafts can be spontaneously or controllably destabilized into armoured oil-in- water droplets, which highlights a possible role for common granular materials in environ- mental remediation. We further present a method for continuous production and discuss the generalization of our approach towards colloidal scales.

The self-assembly of a bis-urea phenylene-bridged silsesquioxane precursor during sol-gel synthesis has been investigated by in situ infrared spectroscopy, optical microscopy and light scattering. In particular, the evolution of the system as a function of processing time was correlated with covalent interactions associated with increasing polycondensation and non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding. A comprehensive mechanism based on the hydrolysis of the phenylene-bridged organosilane precursor prior to the crystallization of the corresponding bridged silsesquioxane via H bonding and subsequent irreversible polycondensation is proposed.

The water dispersion of luminescent nanocrystals (NCs) synthesized in organic solvent by encapsulation in a surfactant bilayer is a promising strategy for preserving the optical properties of NCs. The phase transfer of highly monodispersed ZnO NCs using the monomer, dimer, trimer and polymer of a series of alkyl ammonium surfactants is compared. Transfer yields over 60% could be obtained with the oligomers and the polymer. In contrast, we observed no measurable transfer using the single chain surfactant. NMR spectroscopy, including DOSY and NOESY, demonstrated that increasing the oligomerization number ameliorates the stability within the coating bilayer. The NCs exhibit a strong luminescence in water and show long term chemical and photo-chemical stability.

We study the freezing kinetics of colloidal polycrystals made of micelles of Pluronic F108, a thermosensitive copolymer, to which a small amount of silica nanoparticles of size comparable to that of the micelles are added. We use rheology and calorimetry to measure Tc, the crystallization temperature, and find that Tc increases with the heating rate \dot{T} used to crystallize the sample. To rationalize our results, we first use viscosity measurements to establish a linear mapping between temperature T and the effective volume fraction, {\phi}, of the micelles, treated as hard spheres. Next, we reproduce the experimental \dot{T} dependence of the crystallization temperature with numerical calculations based on standard models for the nucleation and growth of hard spheres crystals, classical nucleation theory and the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov theory. The models have been adapted to account for the peculiarities of our experiments: the presence of nanoparticles that are expelled in the grain boundaries, and the steady increase of T and hence {\phi} during the experiment. We moreover show that the polycrystal grain size obtained from the calculations is in good agreement with light microscopy data. Finally, we find that the {\phi} dependence of the nucleation rate for the micellar polycrystal is in remarkable quantitative agreement with that found in previous experiments on colloidal hard spheres. These results suggests that deep analogies exist between hard-sphere colloidal crystals and Pluronics micellar crystals, in spite of the difference in particle softness. More generally, our results demonstrate that crystallization processes can be quantitatively probed using standard rheometry.

Liquid crystal ordering is an opportunity to develop novel materials and applications with spontaneously aligned nanotubes or graphene particles.Nevertheless, achieving high orientational order parameter and large monodomains remains a challenge. In addition, our restricted knowledge of the structure of the currently available materials is a limitation for fundamental studies and future applications. This paper presents recent methodologies that have been developed to achieve large monodomains of nematic liquid crystals. These allow quantification and increase of their order parameters. Nematic ordering provides an efficient way to prepare conductive films that exhibit anisotropic properties. In particular, it is shown how the electrical conductivity anisotropy increases with the order parameter of the nematic liquid crystal. The order parameter can be tuned by controlling the length and entanglement of the nanotubes. In the second part of the paper, recent results on graphene liquid crystals are reported. The possibility to obtain water-based liquid crystals stabilized by surfactant molecules is demonstrated. Structural and thermodynamic characterizations provide indirect but statistical information on the dimensions of the graphene flakes. From a general point of view, this work presents experimental approaches to optimize the use of nanocarbons as liquid crystals and provides new methodologies for the still challenging characterization of such materials.