Romain Parize - CEMAM

Romain PARIZE, a PhD student who performed his experiments at LMGP (Materials and Engineering Physics Laboratory), winner of the NanoART prize in June 2014 organised by the Nanosciences Foundation with the support of Nanotox®, has just won the 2nd prize of the annual final. His works were carried out with the "Thin films, nanomaterials and nanostructures" team (FM2N) under the direction of Estelle Appert and Vincent Consonni.

 This competition aims to highlight the works of young researchers at the nanoscale while communicating to a wider public with remarkable and highly unusual photos. A winner is selected each month and the photo of the month is onlined with a presentation of the young researcher concerned.

 Romain Parize was the winner in June 2014. His photo, which brings to mind a rose, won 2^nd place in the general ranking voted by Internauts, entitling him to a prize of  $3,000.

 Congratulations!

"It was during his PhD thesis, funded by the Labex CEMAM, that this photo was taken while he was growing ZnO nanoparticles on a nanowire substrate made of the same material. Growth was achieved in a solution of methanol and zinc acetate for which several parameters had to be controlled, such as concentration, temperature and time of growth, in order to obtain the desired result. Here, Romain obtained complex ZnO nanostructures in the form of rose petals.

 This image only represents one step of Romain’s project, that of increasing the surface of nanowires by “gluing” ZnO nanoparticles to them, before depositing an absorber (photons). He explains on the NanoArt site that the final aim of his PhD thesis is to obtain heterostructured models that will have photovoltaic applications.