Fluorinated polymers lead to materials with outstanding properties (low refraction index, low surface energy, high thermal stability, hydrophobicity, oléophobie, chemical stability, high acidity of acidic groups adjacent to CF₂ groups). They find « High-Tech » applications : thin films in electronics, optical fibers, paints and protecting coatings for stone, wood or metals, textile and leather finishing, lubricants, thermally stable materials for car industry and for engineering, (mineral) oil resistant gaskets, membranes for fuel cells.

Drop of water on a hydrophobic surface

Research is devoted to innovative polymers with controlled networks: alternating, blocks, grafted, telechelic copolymers originating from macromonomers, telomers and from various functional fluorinated intermediates. Their functions and properties will determine their applications in the preceding domains indicated above. Amphiphilic fluorinated molecules gain their specific properties from their peculiar geometry and from the hydrophobic or lipophilic nature of the fluorinated chains. Their increased capacity to auto-assembling in various media allows for the generation of numerous nano-structures: micelles, vesicles, fibers, helices, ... The amphiphilic polymers which include a polar part derived from sugars can be used as biological systems or for chirality source. Finally, the association of such surfactants with their hydrogenated homologues gives new perspectives for the comprehension of the respective roles of hydrophoby or lipophoby of the fluorinated chains. In this last domain, research is concerned with the synthesis of mono or dicatenated fluorinated surfactants, of mixed hydrogen-fluorine polymers with a polar ionic, non ionic or cationic head; their physico-chemical properties must be studied before selected applications can be found.