The only complete public university in the Belgian French-speaking community, the University of Liège (www.ulg.ac.be) prides itself on its pluralistic visionand on its pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, and innovation. It is a member of the Wallonia-Europe University Academy (with Gembloux Agro Bio Tech).

With a student body numbering 20,000 and a staff of 4300, 2800 of whom are teachers or researchers, the University of Liège offers enriching and diversified courses of study (38 bachelor's, 193 master's, and 68 advanced master's programs), is committed to the development of student-centered learning, is intensely involved in international research programs and is in contact with more than 600 institutions throughout the world (250 in Europe).

As in all of the universities in Europe and throughout the world, the teaching at ULg is kept alive through research. This teaching-research complementarity is at the heart of the university project. The ULg pays special attention to essential research, the basis of new knowledge. It comprises not less than 530 research units in all subject areas and 20 large-scale inter-disciplinary research centres.

CERM and NANOCHEM Research Activities

CERM : POLYMER SYNTHESIS

Controlled radical polymerization of vinyl monomers and ring-opening polymerization of lactones, lactides and cyclophosphates, as well as electropolymerization are synthetic tools developed at CERM, focussing also to integrate them in green processes.

http://www.CERM.ulg.ac.be

CERM : ADVANCED MATERIALS & COATINGS

Controlling the size, composition and functionality of polymer chains allows using them for the elaboration of advanced materials (bio-inspired coatings, stimuli-responsive materials,…). These new high-tech materials are implemented to answer nowadays concerns such as health improvement, environmental issues and sustainability.

CERM : SUPERCRITICAL CO2 TECHNOLOGY

Supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) is an interesting green alternative to traditional organic solvents because CO2 is cheap, inert, non-toxic, non-flammable and easy to remove. Above its critical parameters, which are easy to achieve (Tc = 31°C, Pc = 73 bars), it is an ideal medium for dispersion synthesis, foaming, impregnation of polymers.

CERM : BIOMATERIALS ENGINEERING

Thanks to their unique biocompatibility and tunable biodegradability, polymers are quite relevant biomaterials, i.e. non-living materials interacting with biological systems. They are today involved in many medical devices, drug eluting implants, drug delivery systems and as scaffolds for tissue engineering.

CERM : POLYMERS FOR ENERGY

Due to their lightweight, performances, low cost, and easy processability, polymers are now intensively considered as essential components for the next generation of advanced green energy sources. They constitute important alternatives to expensive inorganic materials that are actually the main components of these systems.

CERM : POLYMERS FOR SAFETY & MORE

Polymers are largely used in our daily life to protect people and equipment’s from damaging. CERM is deeply involved in the design of novel advanced polymer materials able to suppress the electromagnetic pollution (development of EMI absorbers) and to absorb shocks using ideally green and cheap processing methods as well as the use of nanocomposite as flame retardant additives.

NANOCHEM : FORCE SPECTROSCOPY ON POLYMERS

The research activities of NANOCHEM are concerned with AFM-based single molecule force spectroscopy. Our expertise covers the measurement of intra-molecular and inter-molecular forces in (bio)polymer systems, as well as their interaction on surfaces. We develop AFM tools to probe chemical processes, trigger and control them, at the single molecule level, in situ and in real time.

Besides those cutting edge research areas, we offer expertise in classical and advanced AFM-based surface characterization: Topography, mechanical properties, adhesion, chemical imaging with functionalized probes, …

http://www.nanochem.ulg.ac.be

ULG

CENTER FOR EDUCATION AND RESEARCH ON MACROMOLECULES (CERM) AND NANOCHEM