Mesoporous materials are excellent model of nanoscale cavities. This allows studying a variety of physicochemical phenomena under nanoscale confinement with interesting applications in energy (fuel cells, shale gas and shale oil), environment (catalysis, photocatalysis, adsorption and sensing) and biomaterials (cell adhesion, controlled release).

The highly confined mesoporous environment imposes new physico-chemical boundary conditions at the nanoscale. The chemical reactivity of the pore surface depends on a variety of processes: adsorption, formation of molecular and supramolecular species, changes of Interfacial properties, transport and diffusion of molecules and macromolecules, perm-selectivity and double electric layer effects. We study the phenomena of ion and molecule transport through mesoporous systems, the structure and dynamics of solvent confined within the pores, chemical equilibrium (adsorption and partition) in mesocavities and chemical reactivity (dissolution vs. stability, modification of chemical reaction rates induced by porosity, etc.)