News

We are incredibly pleased to announce that Dr. Dominik Richter successfully defended his PhD thesis on local mesopore functionalization, characterization and ion filtration.

We welcome Melissa Waschinger as new group member. She is working on light-based fabrication and recycling of mesoporous silica using 3D-printing. Furthermore she is also working on automatisation of processes.

We welcome Tobias Gaydoul as new group member. He is working on silica-paper hybrid materials, investigating their mechanical properties and their potential regarding sustainable recycling of wet-strength paper and circularity.

On July 9th, our research group proudly joined the graduation ceremony held by the Department of Chemistry at TU Darmstadt.
Herewith, we want to warmly congratulate Mohadeseh Bagherabadi for reveiving her doctorate. We also applaud our latest graduates Melissa Waschinger and Tobias Hoffmann on successfully finishing their master’s study. Well done folks!

Congratulations Dr. Mohadeseh Bagherabadi, who successfully defended her PhD thesis on Multifunctional Mesopores for Wound Dressing with Integrated Recognition, and Release Functions.

We welcome Tobias Hoffmann as new group member. He is working on nanoscale polymer writing in mesoporous silica layers and automatisation of visible light induced polymer functionalisation inside nanopores.

Please check out the new article on Fluid imbibition into PMETAC functionalized mesoporous films.

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Please check out the new article on Self-Driven Fluid Imbibition of Salt Solutions into Mesoporous Films.

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We welcome Paersis Weslie as new group member. She is working on mesoporous, conductive transient sieves with application in molecular transport and separation.

Please check out the new article on Characterization and Optimization of Vesicle Properties in bioPISA.

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We welcome our new team assistant Sandra Klatt.

Our group celebrated the end of an eventful year. With two new PhD students, one successfully completed doctorate, several successfully completed student and internship projects, 10 Publications, many conferences, group members winning awards, and having a project on the way to found a startup – we are really proud of our last years achievements. Together with participants of all macromolecular chemistry groups in our Chemistry Department at TU Darmstadt, we had an enjoyable evening with food, drinks and a secret santa. We wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy new year! Let’s keep pushing the boundaries of nanopores and polymer science in 2025!

Together with Prof. Omar Azzaroni and Prof. Galo Soler-Illia, we hosted the Scoping Workshop “Nanoconfinement in Chemistry” supported by the VolkswagenStiftung. For three days, participants from all over the world discussed the impact of nanoconfinement in science, technology and society. In many productive discussions we came up with numerous ideas to tackle important challenges in todays society inspiring future research. Thank you to all participants for sharing your valuable insight!

Our publicaton on Electropolymerization of Polydopamine at Electrode-Supported Insulating Mesoporous Films in Chem. Mater: Published as part of the Chemistry of Materials virtual special issue “In Honor of Prof. Clement Sanchez”

Our Publication on Grafting and controlled release of antimicrobial peptides from mesoporous silica in J. Mater B. is part of the Special Issue: Celebrating 10 years of Emerging Investigators in Journal of Materials Chemistry B.

Please check out our new article on Laser-Writing of Fluorescent Copolymers in Mesoporous Silica Thin Films.

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We are proudly presenting the Cerasleeve Team who won the first-ever UNITE Startup Award yesterday. CONGRATULATIONS!!

We spent an inspiring time on the sol-gel conference in Berlin last week. Alex presented his work on Bio-ATRP in mesopores, Annette gave a talk on sol-gel chemistry in paper and with DLP and Mathias was awarded the ISGS PhD thesis award 2022.

We welcome Nikita Jha as new group member. She is working on nanopores to control communicating reaction cascades in networks of cotton threads and paper.

We are searching for

an expert in the field of high-resolution fluorescence microscopy or controlled polymer functionalisation of nanoscale pores to control ionic transport.

an expert in the field of transient pores, FRAP and fluorescence microscopy, electrochemistry, in particular impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry, sol-gel chemistry and the functionalisation of mesoporous materials, on transport processes in nanopores.

Please check out our new article Grafting and controlled release of antimicrobial peptides from mesoporous silica

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At the ScotChem Polymer and Soft Materials III conference in Glasgow, our group member Oleksandr Moskalyk received the award sponsored by the Royal Society of Chemistry for the Best Nanoscience Presentation. The presented work is based on the copolymerization using hemoglobin as a catalyst for targeted adjustment of silica particle mesopore functionality and was made possible in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Nico Bruns from the chemistry department at TU-Darmstadt.

Together with the MAP group (AK Biesalski) we finally spent again some days in Hirschegg strengthening scientific exchange and group feeling by this year’s hiking tour to the Walmendingerhorn and games evenings. Thanks to Darmstädter Haus and looking forward coming back soon!

The Cerasleeve team won the 3rd place in the Science4Life Venture cup Businessplan competition. CONGRATULATIONS!

Please check out the press release and the block contribution

Please check out our new article on 3D Printing of Ordered Mesoporous Silica Using Light-Induced Sol-Gel Chemistry

Together we went on a Trip to to Hofgut Oberfeld and enjoyed coffee and cake to round off the afternoon

We welcome Lucía Pizarro from the Soft Matter Labratory (INIFTA, La Plata, Argentina) who will spend a DAAD funded guest stay in our group! Looking forward to inspiring collaborative research.

Our project team working on “SiliCoat Paper” was awarded with the Award for Sustainability and Interdisciplinarity from the „Freunde der TU-Darmstadt“. This is an example of a very fruitful collaboration between the MAP and Smartmem research group. We feel honored to receive this award and we will keep working on the understanding and real-world application of more sustainable paper materials by combining silica and paper.

Congratulations Dr. Lucy Zhao, who successfully defended her PhD thesis on hierarchical design in mesoporous silica using functional templates and digital light processing.

Please check out our new article on Local water management in cotton linter papers with silica-based coatings

Please check out our new article on Single-fibre coating and additive manufacturing of multifunctional papers

We welcome Michael Zoppelt as new group member. He is working on controlled copolymerisation in mesoporous silica layers.

Please check out our new article on Printing of In Situ Functionalized Mesoporous Silica withDigital Light Processing for Combinatorial Sensing

We are searching for

A candidate experimentally implementing transient separation concepts based on fast gating conductive mesoporous ITO films within our DFG funded collaborative “Forschergruppe”.

A candidate implementing communicating nanopore reaction spaces using cascade reactions in mesoporous silica functionalized paper and cotton thread networks.

Please check out our article on Ultrashort Peptide Grafting on Mesoporous Films and Its Impact on Ionic Mesopore Accessibility

We welcome Steffen Paech as new group member

Together, we look back on 2023 at the end of the year at the working group’s annual Christmas breakfast

Congratulations Dr. Laura Despot, who successfully defended her PhD thesis on the influence of wetting architecture and pore wall charge on fluid distribution and proton transport in mesoporous silica films.

Congratulations Dr. Joanna Mikolei, who successfully defended her PhD thesis on Selectively addressable interfaces in paper via fibre pre-functionalisation

Please check out our article in collaboration with the group of Tanja Weil (Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research Mainz) on electropolymerization to functionalize mesoporous films published s part of the Chemistry of Materials virtual special issue “In Honor of Prof. Clement Sanchez”.

Please check out our new article on Molecular transport and water condensation inside mesopores with wettability step gradients

We welcome Marianne Blascakas as our new secretary.

Please check out our article on fluidic threads with modular designed and adjustable thread wettability.

Endlich dürfen wir es Euch verraten:

Wir freuen uns sehr, offiziell bekannt zu geben, dass das Startup-Projekt CeraSleeve® ein EXIST-Forschungstransfer erhalten hat!
Das Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz ist von dem Gründungsvorhaben überzeugt und ermöglicht es im Rahmen einer nicht rückzahlbaren Förderung von über € 1 Mio. den Proof of Concept für 24 Monate zu entwickeln. Es ist eine der größten Fördersumme, die ein Gründungsvorhaben an der TU Darmstadt eingeworben hat und ermöglicht es CeraSleeve® die wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse in ein marktfähiges Produkt umzusetzen.

Hier mehr erfahren!

We are hosting the first international STIMULUS Conferenc in September in Darmstadt.

We welcome Lisa Balonier as new group member. She will work on our SFB 1194 project on the interplay of transport and wetting.

We are delighted to be awarded a DFG collaborative project with the group of Igal Szleifer at Northwestern University. We are offering a fully funded PhD position searching for a highly motivated PhD candidate with excellent skills in chemical and polymer synthesis and a high motivation to get exposed to polymer modeling in nanopores while spending time in the Szleifer group. Applications including CV, short motivation letter and all relevant certificates are welcome.

New study program on “Soft Matter and Materials” is open for applications until 1 September 2023.
learn more

We are currently looking for research and student assistants to support the EXIST-CeraSleeve project.

Student Assistant
Research Assistant

Congratulations Dr. Claire Förster, who successfully defended her PhD thesis on visible light induced polymerization inside nanopores for polymer writing.

Our article on introducing nanoscale pores into paper via mesoporous silica coatings has been published.

Please check out our article on the pH and polymer amount depence on proton transport through mesopores.

Please check out our just accepted article on polymer writing in mesopores using microscopes in Angew. Chem.

Our article on selective binding of metal ions at nanopores to tune the ionic transport has been published.

Please check out our Review on visible light induced polymerization towards its application to nanopores.

Our first article on polymer writing in mesoporous films is online! Please check out. (Link).

We welcome Ming Zhou who will be working as a visiting scientist within our ERC project on 3D-printing and membranes.

Check out our new article on using visible-light induced PET-RAFT polymerization for
asymmetric polymer placement into mesoporous silica thin films.

Two PhD defense exams in two days. The second generation of SMARTIES PhDs successfully finished. Looking back on many adventures with such a great team while the SMARTIES were growing! CONGRATULATIONS Mathias and Daniel!

Together with the MAP group (AG Biesalski) we finally spent again some days in Hirschegg strengthening scientific exchange and group feeling! Thanks to Darmstädter Haus and looking forward coming back soon!

Beginning of september the smarties met at the Zoo Vivarium. We enjoyed one of the last sunny and warm summer days with our colleagues between otters, zebras and butterflies.

Congratulations Dr. Adnan Khalil, who successfully defended his PhD thesis on the interplay of wetting and transport in mesoporourous silicafilms.

We are delighted about continuing our collaboration with our partners in the Soft Matter Laboratory @ INIFTA in La Plata (Argentina). Currently, Joanna is pursuing a DAAD-funded exchange project in Argentina on the characterization of mesoporous films and silica functionalized paper using e.g. SAXS measurements. Thanks to the Soft Matter Laboratory for hosting Joanna making this exciting experience and collaboration possible and thanks to DAAD for funding.

We are very happy to share that Annette has been recognised as one of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s 2021 Outstanding Reviewers for the journal Nanoscale Horizons. Explore the full list at OutstandingReviewers2021.

New Invited Feature Article in Chem. Commun. on how to push nanopore transport performance by using polymer functionalization. We are proud that our article has been highlighted as HOT ARTICLE 2022 by Chem. Commun.

We welcome Felix Krusch as new PhD student working on our Faudi Project on Nanopores in Membranes.

Our latest collaborative publication with the research group of Prof. Nicolas Vogel (FAU Erlangen) was highlighted in a comment in PNAS. We are happy we could provide some polymer functionalization expertise to this idea of the Vogel group!

We welcome Oleksandr Moskalyk as a new PhD student in our group. Alex will work on strategies for enzyme stabilization in nanopores.

Congratulations to Dr. Nicole Rath and Mathias Stanzel for getting the second place of the TU ideas contest 2021 with the Pioneer Fund project CeraSleeve (Collaboration with Prof. Biesalski). They presented bio-based water-repellent and oil absorbing media through sustainable silica coating of natural fiber fabrics. A video of the final pitches at the award ceremony is available here.

We welcome Marius Kirsch as new group member. He will work on our DFG project related to plasmon induced nanolocal polymerization.

Congratulations Dr. Maria Ochs, who successfully defended her PhD thesis on multifunctionalization and characterization of nanopores.

Prof. Thommes (FAU Erlangen) is visiting us in the context of the GDCh lecture. We are looking forward to inspiring discussions.

Congratulations to Samet Varol, who received both Career Bridging Grant (CBG) from TU-Darmstadt and Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship from Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung. Samet will work on the effect of mechano-gating (e.g., via stretching) on the ionic pore transport of flexible smart-gating membranes and the role of nanoconfinement. From 1st September 2022 on, as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (Humboldtian!), he will do his research in the Department of Chemistry „Giacomo Ciamician“ of the University of Bologna, Italy

We are searching for highly motivated students to work on stereolithography-based 3D printing of mesoporous silica structures. If interested please contact Prof. Andrieu-Brunsen.

We welcome Mohadeseh Bagherabadi as new group member. Mohadeseh will work on the ITN project.

We are very delighted to receive funding from the DFG to continue our project on 3D-nanolocal polymerization in nanopores using near field modes as light source! Looking forward to the upcoming adventures.

Congratulations to Samet Varol, who received a Career Bridging Grant from TU-Darmstadt. Samet will work on mechano-gating (e.g., via stretching) to control the ionic transport of flexible smart-gating membranes

Check out our new article on layer-selective functionalisation in mesoporous double layer for nanoscale step gradient formation.

Der #InnoDay2021 findet auf einer virtuellen 3D-Plattform statt, die viele Tools zum Austauschen und Vernetzen bietet. Hier erlebt ihr den #innovativen, #forschungsstarken und #zukunftsweisenden Gründer-Spirit der Region. Neben 80 Start-ups, Gründungsunterstützenden sowie Innovationsprojekten oder einfach nur Aussteller:innen könnt ihr euch dort mit spannenden Menschen aus Wirtschaft, Wissenschaft und Politik vernetzen. Die Live-Konferenz mit spannenden Speakern startet ab 9:30 Uhr.

Wir von CeraSleeve freuen uns auf Euch! Besucht unseren Stand. CeraSleeve – Ein Projekt der Arbeitsgruppen MAP & Smart Membranes.

Kostenfreies Ticket: https://lnkd.in/gjcAKhv

„Start-up & Innovation Day“ powered by Technische Universität Darmstadt und HIGHEST – Innovations- und Gründungszentrum.

Our article on gating water infiltration and condensation in ceramic nanopores via the functionalization with photoactive spiropyrane has been published.

Check out our new publication on simultaneous nanolocal polymer and in situ readout unit placement in mesoporous separation layers.

Our article on Surface Plasmons and Visible Light Iniferter Initiated Polymerization has been published.

Check out our new publication on influence of wettability on the impedance of ion transport through mesoporous silica films.

Welcome and congratulations to Raheleh Pardehkhorram who will join our group as a postdoc being funded by a Career Bridging Grant and working on metal nanostructures for local functionalization and sensing concepts.

A re-union of all Smarties group members of 2012-2020 during our Christmas seminar.

Check out our new publication on water imbibition into mesoporous silica thin films with different wettig properties.

We are very happy to welcome two new group members: Matthias Kremer will work on 3D printing of porous material within the ERC StG and Lukas Kuhl will continue the SFB 1194 project on the interplay of wetting and molecular transport.

Congratulations Dr. Nicole Rath, who successfully defended her PhD thesis on methods towards asymmetric functionalization in porous systems.

Our article on the interplay of nanoconfinement an pH has been published. Thanks to the collaboration with the group of Prof. G. Buntkowsky and the group of Prof. J. Wachtveitl.

Congratulations Dr. Robert Brilmayer, who successfully defended his PhD thesis on pH-sensing in mesopores.

We are very happy to announce that the DFG has approved four more years of funding for the Collaborative Research Centre 1194. It focuses on wetting and transport phenomena.

We are happy to be part of a Innovative Training Network (ITN) „STIMULUS“, that focuses on the suitability of swellable polymers, nanoporous coatings or functional paper for interactions with antibacterial substances.

Check out our Frontispiece in Small showing wetting-controlled localized functionalization of nanopores.

We welcome Maleknaz Mirdamadi Esfahani as new Postdoc in our group. She is working on antifouling strategies for membranes funded by a Wiedereinstiegsstipendium of the TU-Darmstadt.

Our second article on functional templates for in-situ mesopore functionalization has been published. Thanks to the fruitful collaboration with the group of Prof. M. Gallei and congratulations to Nicole!

We welcome Robert Lehn as new group member. He will support us with high resolution fluorescence microscopy.

New Joint Publication on polymer grafted from MXene surfaces together with the group of Christina Birkel at ASU.

Maria Ochs will present insights into her work on local placement of functional polymers in inverse opal monolayers at the 16th Zsigmondy Colloquium in Düsseldorf, Germany, in March 2020.

We welcome Samet Varol as a new Postdoc. He will work on new approaches to control transport through nanopores.

We welcome Laura starting her PhD with us. Laura will work on understanding proton transport in mesoporous silica membranes.

We welcome Lucy starting her PhD with us. Lucy will work on 3D-Printing of mesoporous materials.

Please check our new publications on Fabrication and in situ functionalisation of mesoporous silica as well as on Interplay of wetting and transport in mesoporous silica films.

Please check our new publication on Nanopore Accessibility in Polyelectrolyte Block‐Co‐Oligomer Functionalized Mesopores.

Please check our new publications on mesoporous film gravure printing and on paper janus membranes.

Congratulations to Sonja who successfully defended her PhD Thesis today! Together with BASF Sonja was looking at enzyme stabilization strategies for washing applications using porous materials and polymers.

We welcome Claire and Joanna starting their PhD with us. Claire will work on Visible light induced functionalization of nanoscale pores and Joanna on understanding Nanoscale porosity on paper functionality.

We are proud to announce that the Editorial Board for the journal Nanoscale Horizons of the Royal Society of Chemistry has chosen Annette Andrieu-Brunsen as one of the outstanding reviewers in 2018 based on the number, timeliness and quality of reports completed.

Annette will talk as a featured speaker at the Frontiers in polymer science, 5-8 May 2019 in Budapest, Hungary.

We are very happy to get our Joint project with the Institute IWAR at the TU Darmstadt (Prof. Engelhart) on Functional Nanoporous separation layers for Water re-use funded as a FIF project.

We are extremely happy to announce that Annette has been awarded with the ERC Starting Grant 2018.

We congratulate Robert Brilmayer for winning the 2nd poster price witth his poster „pH in Confinement“ at the Doktorandentag from the TU Darmstadt Chemistry Departement!

We are proud to announce that the Editorial Board for the journal Materials Horizons of the Royal Society of Chemistry has chosen Annette Andrieu-Brunsen as one of the outstanding reviewers in 2017 based on the number, timeliness and quality of reports completed.

Robert Brilmayer will talk about “The influence of chain architecture on polyelectrolyte functionalized mesopore accessibility”

Sunday 18.03.2018 19-21 Uhr Ernest N. Morial Convention Center

Website: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/meetings/national-meeting.html

Postersession of the Division of Cellulose and Renewable Materials
Nicole Herzog will present her poster on “Fluid flow in paper-derived silica-polymer hybrids”
Wednesday 21.03.2018 11:30-11:50 Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry, Session: Surface Chemistry, Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
Nicole Herzog will talk about “Surface plasmon & visible light for polymer functionalization of mesoporous silica films”

All good things come to an end! We are very happy to congratulate Laura for her Ph.D. graduation!

Publication on Iniferter Initiated Polymerization Control and Block-Copolymer Formation in Mesopores within the Special Issue Polymers and Block Copolymers at Interfaces and Surfaces of Polymers acceped „http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/9/10/539/htm“

Sunny day and fun playing/watching football. The Peanutbutter Jelly football team reached the semi final of the deparment’s tournament.

Link: https://www.events.tum.de/frontend/index.php?folder_id=612

Meet us at the Bayreuth Polymer Symposium in September!

We welcome Maria Ochs as new PhD students in our group working on our joint DFG project with the group of Prof. Vogel in Erlangen on single pore monolayers, their multiple functionalization and plasmonic local readout.

Spending a great time with a friend from Argentina visiting us! Thanks Omar Azzaroni for the inspiring discussions and the great time we spent together before the i-Napo conference here in Darmstadt!

Link: http://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/6284/…

Link: http://www.inapo.tu-darmstadt.de/inapo/…