The development of smart nanomaterials has attracted great attention in several fields like nanoscience and nanotechnology due to their unique response to external stimuli. Many of them are based on polymers that can exhibit a shape-changes when submitted to environmental modifications. Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), PNIPAM, is a thermo-responsive polymer. Linear chains are water soluble at room temperature but undergo a reversible coil-to-globule transition at a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) close to 32°C due to the dehydration and subsequent collapse of its chains into compact globules. [1] This phenomenon results in a volume phase transition (VPT) in PNIPAM based crosslinked microgels and can be used to promote original thermal effects.Hybrid nanocomposite microgels associating PNIPAM and gold nanoparticles (GNP) have thus been designed in order to take advantage of the outstanding plasmonic and photo-thermal properties of GNP to promote the VPT of the microgels through an efficient photo-thermal conversion. [2] With their strong diameter-dependent optical absorption in the near infrared (NIR) and their large surface area favoring photo-thermal transfer, semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWNT) are also good candidates for photo-thermal conversion in the NIR (Figure 1a). However, to the best of our knowledge, no thorough studies of nanomaterials based on both SWNT and PNIPAM have been reported so far.Here we describe the preparation of SWNT/PNIPAM hybrid microgels through a non-covalent functionalization technique. These nanoparticles are stable in water and show a VPT, which can be promoted either by direct heating or by excitation of the resonant absorption of s-SWNT in the NIR (Figure 1b-c). The photoluminescence (PL) signal can be used to monitor the VPT by a redshift observed when crossing the LCST, while the Raman signatures remain essentially the same.

The development of smart nanomaterials has attracted great attention in several fields like nanoscience, materials science,engineering and nanotechnology due to their unique response to external stimuli. Many of them are based on polymers thatcan exhibit great shape-changes when submitted to environmental modifications. Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), PNIPAM, is sucha thermo-responsive polymer. It is water soluble at room temperature, forming gels by cross-linking but undergoes a reversiblecoil-to-globule volume phase transition (VPT) at a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) close to 32 °C due to thedehydration and subsequent collapse of its chains into compact globules.
Hybrid nanocomposite microgels associating PNIPAM and gold nanoparticles (GNP) have been designed in order to takeadvantage of the outstanding plasmonic and photo-thermal properties of GNP to promote the volume phase transition of themicrogels through an efficient photo-thermal conversion. With their strong diameter-dependent optical absorption in the nearinfrared (NIR) and their large surface area favoring photo-thermal transfer, semiconducting SWNT (s-SWNT) are goodcandidates for photo-thermal conversion in the NIR and may therefore be used to prepare multi-responsive hybrid microgels(Figure 1). However, to the best of our knowledge, no thorough studies of such nanomaterials have been reported so far.
Here we report the preparation of smart SWNT/PNIPAM nanocomposites through non-covalent functionalization techniques.These SWNT/PNIPAM hybrid microgels are stable in water and show a VPT, which can be promoted either by direct heating orby excitation of the resonant absorption of s-SWNT in the near infrared. Furthermore, the photoluminescence (PL) signal of s-SWNT is modulated at the phase transition and therefore, the PL signal can be used to monitor the VPT. This is illustrated inFigure 2, showing coupled Raman/PL measurements below and above the LCST, where a redshift of the PL bands is observedwhen crossing the LCST while the Raman signatures remain essentially the same.

Temperature is one of the basic parameters often required to characterize a system. A great demand has arisen for localmeasurements, especially in liquids or complex biological environments. Various approaches have been proposed to study thetemperature at the nano-scale level. Some of them are based on the spectroscopic properties of carbon nanotubes (CNT) usedas sensors.
Raman spectroscopy is indeed a powerful technique to identify single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) and to study theirstructure, defects and electronic properties through the measurement of specific Raman signatures (RBM, D, G and 2D bands).On the other hand, individual SWNT or small bundles emit light in the near infrared and the photoluminescence (PL) spectra isvery sensitive to the quality of the dispersion and the dielectric environment of the nanotubes. In particular, when SWNT aredispersed in aqueous solutions, the PL energies are sensitive to the nature of the surfactants or polymers, to theirconcentration, and to the way they adsorb on/wrap around the nanotubes.
In this work we show that the PL/Raman spectra of SWNT dispersed with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) is very sensitive to thetemperature (figure 1) in a large range of SDS concentrations. We discuss the influence of the chiral angle of the SWNT onthese PL changes, and the origin of the changes in terms of SDS reorganization at the surface of the nanotubes. Similarchanges are obtained with increasing laser power (figure 2), showing the local heating of the nanotubes. These results pavethe way for the development of SWNT-based nano-thermometers.

Pesticide sensing is an important object of study due to its increasing use worldwide. Herein, we report a SERS study of 4-nitrophenol (PNP), which is product of neutralization processes of various pesticides such as Paraoxon, and can be used as a target molecule for monitoring. PNP is also widely used in the chemical industry and due to its high toxicity is considered a concerning pollutant. The sensing was carried out with a reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite functionalized with cysteamine and Ag nanoparticles (rGOSHAg), and compared with raw reduced graphene oxide and a commercial SERS substrates (SERStrate (TM)). A mechanistic evaluation was also carried out, focused in the degradation of PNP caused by the different exciting laser lines, evidencing the PNP dimerization in substrates containing Ag NPs (under 532 nm laser), which has important outcomes for sensing purposes. The nanocomposite rGOSHAg presented the highest sensitivity towards PNP, detecting concentrations as low as 10(-6) mol L-1 and with a high potential for field applications and real-time measurements of molecules commonly present in pesticides and industrial contaminants.

This paper presents an efficient way to measure the curing kinetics and gel point, αgel, in epoxy resins from one single experiment. The epoxy curing reaction is herein monitored using in situ and time-resolved near-infrared absorption spectroscopy (NIR). The curing profiles over different isothermal conditions are in good agreement with DSC. Furthermore, the increase of the NIR absorption bands of aromatic rings (unreactive throughout curing) probe the cure shrinkage, as more and more aromatic rings are localized within the fixed sample volume. Therefore, the gel point is determined using the onset of the aromatic absorption increase. The results are in good agreement with the theoretical gel point, as well as DMA results. This innovative approach enables gelation measurements on epoxy neat resins and film composites with an easy-to-perform, accurate, robust, and versatile method.

To date, aqueous stable graphene flakes solutionscan be obtained by simple REDOX reactions.1–5 Most of the current applications regardinggraphene require ordered nanostructuredcomposites materials. Liquid crystal phases orderingrepresent an opportunity to arrange theminto macroscopic assemblies with long-rangeordering. 1,2 Preparing organized materials andthin films from these dispersions then requires agood control of the liquid crystal ordering duringthe deposition and the drying of the films. As amatter of fact, it turns out that graphene flakeseasily align at high shear.3,4 On the other hand,Graphene Flakes Liquid Crystals (GFLC) exhibita very interesting behaviour at low shear or undersmall displacements, thin films often showspeculiar patterns (such as the periodic texturesshown in Fig.72-72). We have shown how tocreate and stabilize large-sized periodic texturesin GFLC. The patterns have been characterizedunder optical and electronic microscopies. Theirstability can be explained by the competition betweenthe anchoring field of the substrate andthe presence of a yield stress resulting fromthe peculiar elastic and rheological properties ofthe GFLC. Our findings also clarify why longstandinghypotheses on the presence of exoticphases1 at large concentrations are present inthe literature.
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[2] Zamora-Ledezma, C.; Puech, N.; Zakri, C.; Grelet, E.; Moulton, S. E.; Wallace, G. G.; Gambhir, S.; Blanc, C.; Anglaret, E.;Poulin, P. The journal of physical chemistry letters 2012, 3, 2425–2430..
[3] Poulin, P.; Jalili, R.; Neri, W.; Nallet, F.; Divoux, T.; Colin, A.; Aboutalebi, S. H.; Wallace, G.; Zakri, C. Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences 2016, 113, 11088–11093..
[4] Zamora-Ledezma, C.; Jeridi, H.; Anglaret, E.; Blanc, C. Orientations and periodic textures in graphene liquid crystals. 27thInternational Liquid Crystal Conference (ILCC2018). 2018..
[5] Xu, Z.; Gao, C. Nature communications 2011, 2, 571.