NANOCOORD · Design, study and development of novel functional hybrid nanomaterials, which consist of a nanoparticle core and an unconventional shell of coordination entities with synergetic properties.""

In many strategic research areas, particularly in electronics and medicine, nanochemistry-based technologies have recently grown considerably owing to the specific properties of the nanoscale (e.g. room temperature superparamagnetism, quantum effects), which are hardly accessible by traditional chemical approaches. In this context, most of the actual research carried out on nanomaterials is looking at functionalizing the surface of nano-objects with selective organic / bioorganic entities to implement and tailor the resulting properties and applied perspectives. In contrast, the consideration of coordination entities, such as transition-metal complexes, on the surface of nano-objects is hitherto rather limited and remains to be investigated in a systematic way. The NANOCOORD project is tackling this purpose with a distinct and unexplored approach of associating coordination entities (CE) to the outer surface of inorganic nanoparticles (NP). Therefore, the proposed strategy is paving the way to specific and remarkable properties such as magnetic bistability or photo-dynamic therapy while enlarging the applications panel. The particular knowledge gap in this research area legitimates the development of the project that visions to exploit the distinctive attributes of nanochemistry and coordination chemistry to design innovative functional materials with complementary properties. In light of the numerous potential applications, it is crucial to stress that this multidisciplinary project does not claim to cover all the possibilities but aims at a more methodical exploration of such NP@CE heterostructures, via a judicious and initially restricted selection of two application fields of high impact: combination therapy and data storage. The potential outcomes are highly relevant from both a fundamental scientific and technological perspective.""