We have generated closed-cell microcellular foams from gliadin, an abundantly available wheat storage protein. The extraction procedure of gliadin from wheat gluten, which involves only the natural solvents water and ethanol, respectively, is described with emphasis on the precipitation step of gliadin which results in a fine dispersion of mostly spherical, submicron gliadin particles composed of myriad of protein molecules. A dense packing of these particles was hydrated and subjected to an atmosphere of carbon dioxide or nitrogen in a high-pressure cell at 250 bar. Subsequent heating to temperatures close to but still below 100 A degrees C followed by sudden expansion and simultaneous cooling resulted in closed-cell microcellular foam. The spherical gliadin templates along with the resulting foam have been analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) pictures. The size distribution of the primary particles shows diameters peaked around 0.54 mu m, and the final foam cell size peaks around 1.2 mu m, at a porosity of about 80 %. These are the smallest foam cell sizes ever reported for gliadin. Interestingly, the cell walls of these microcellular foams are remarkably thin with thicknesses in the lower nanometer range, thus nourishing the hope to be able to reach gliadin nanofoam.

Zeolites exhibit an immense range of applications, such as those in the chemical industry, electronics and photonics among others. We used non-catalytic zeolites in an entirely new fashion. In fact, high pressure (0.5-26 GPa) chemical reactions of simple molecules in the pores of a pure SiO2 zeolite, silicalite were performed in the diamond anvil cell to obtain unique nano-composites with drastically modified properties. These materials were investigated using a combination of X-ray diffraction and optical spectroscopy. We will first show how silicalite can be easily filled by simple molecules at high pressures and how this filling deactivates pressure induced amorphization of the silica framework. We will then present a silicon carbonate phase synthesized by reacting silicalite and molecular CO2 that fills the nano-pores, at 18-26 GPa and 600-980 K; the resulting compound is slightly metastable at room pressure. On the other hand, a nano-composite, which is stable at room temperature and pressure, is obtained by photo-polymerizing ethylene at 0.5-1.5 GPa under UV (351-364 nm) irradiation in the channels of silicalite. The structure of this material is characterized by single polyethylene chains adapting very well to the confining channels, which significantly modifies the physical properties of the silicalite framework. These findings may pave the way to the high pressure synthesis of a unique generation of technological materials

Depuis le démarrage des collisions proton-proton au LHC en 2009, les expériences ATLAS et CMS ont collecté plus de 25/fb de données. Le boson de Higgs est une prédiction clé du Modèle Standard de la physique des particules et sa découverte en 2012 par les expériences ATLAS et CMS complète le Modèle Standard. Le Modèle Standard, bien qu'en excellent accord avec les observations faites auprès des collisioneurs, ne répond pas à de nombreuses questions~: la nature de la matière noire, de l'énergie noire... De plus, l'instabilité de la masse du Higgs sous l'effet des corrections radiatives semble indiquer la présence d'une nouvelle physique à haute énergie. Parmi les théories au-delà du Modèle Standard, les modèles supersymétriques restent encore aujourd'hui d'excellents candidats pour étendre le Modèle Standard. Durant cette thèse, qui s'est déroulée de 2011 à 2014, j'ai travaillé à la recherche de signaux supersymétriques au sein de l'expérience ATLAS. Tout d'abord au L2C à Montpellier, où nous avons co-développé une nouvelle version de SuSpect, un programme permettant de calculer le spectre de masse du MSSM. Au sein du groupe ATLAS du CPPM à Marseille, j'ai développé pour la collaboration ATLAS des outils d'identification des jets issus de l'hadronisation des quarks b basés sur des réseaux de neurones artificiels et des arbres de décisions. Ces outils ont permis d'améliorer la discrimination des différentes saveurs de jet pour les analyses de données d'ATLAS.J'ai ensuite utilisé les données enregistrées par ATLAS en 2012 pour poser des limites sur la production associée de charginos et neutralinos se désintégrant via un boson de Higgs et un boson W pour donner un lepton chargé, deux jets issus de quarks b et de l'énergie transverse manquante.

Micro hyper-Raman spectroscopy of PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3 (PMN) single crystal is performed at room temperature. The use of an optical microscope working in backscattering geometry significantly reduces the LO signal, highlighting thereby the weak contributions underneath. We clearly identify the highest frequency transverse optic mode (TO3) in addition to the previously observed soft TO-doublet at low frequency and TO2 at intermediate frequency. TO3 exhibits strong inhomogeneous broadening but perfectly fulfils the hyper-Raman cubic selection rules. The analysis shows that hyper-Raman spectroscopy is sensitive to all the vibrations of the average cubic Pm3m symmetry group of PMN, the three polar F1u- and the silent F2u-symmetry modes. All these vibrations can be identified in the Raman spectra alongside other vibrational bands likely arising from symmetry breaking in polar nanoregions.

Précurseurs dynamiques microscopiques de la fracture d’élastomères