In a magnetic field, spin-ladders undergo two zero-temperature phase transitions at the critical fields Hc1 and Hc2. An experimental review of static and dynamical properties of spin-ladders close to these critical points is presented. The scaling functions, universal to all quantum critical points in onedimension, are extracted from (a) the thermodynamic quantities (magnetization) and (b) the dynamical functions (NMR relaxation). A simple mapping of strongly coupled spin ladders in a magnetic field on the exactly solvable XXZ model enables to make detailed fits and gives an overall understanding of a broad class of quantum magnets in their gapless phase (between Hc1 and Hc2). In this phase, the low temperature divergence of the NMR relaxation demonstrates its Luttinger liquid nature as well as the novel quantum critical regime at higher temperature. The general behavior close these quantum critical points can be tied to known models of quantum magnetism.PACS. 75.10.Jm Quantized spin models -75.40.-s Critical-points effects, specific heats, short range order -76.60.-k Nuclear magnetic resonance and relaxation

High‐quality monodisperse metallic cobalt nanorods are obtained by the reduction of carboxylate salts of CoII in 1,2‐butanediol using a rapid, simple, and solid‐template‐free procedure. In this polyol process, particle shape can be controlled via the growth rate, which depends on three parameters: i) the nature of the cobalt carboxylate, ii) the temperature ramp, and iii) the basicity of the medium. Cobalt in the hexagonally close‐packed phase favored the growth of anisotropic particles. Magnetic measurements of the cobalt nanorods indicate they are ferromagnetic at room temperature. They have a very high coercivity of 9.0 kOe at 140 K, much higher than that observed for wires prepared with solid templates. This can be attributed to their small mean diameter and high crystallinity.