From the European Night of Researchers “Imagining the Future” September 2012- see video on https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xtbyli The diamondoids of nanomaterials promised to a bright future Jean-Cyrille HIERSO and his team value diamontoids. These are infinitely small (nanodiant) diamonds that were discovered in oil 80 years ago. These species consisting solely of carbon and hydrogen, are very chemically stable and compatible with living life. Their application potential is very promising as they already provide an excellent basis for the development of new materials. Jean-Cyrille HIERSO’s objective is to functionalise them, i.e. to modify them by enriching them with chemical elements other than carbon to give them new functions, and to study the original fundamental properties derived therefrom. What will be the practical applications? “This kind of materials with such unique carbon structure will necessarily have an application, like carbon nanotubes,” he says. Jean-Cyrille HIERSO thinks — among other things — of the use of nanodiamonds to improve the efficiency of solar cells, or for the vectorisation of medicinal products by transporting an active ingredient to a targeted area of the body.