Institutes | Max Planck Institutes | MPI for Polymer Research

Glass that cleans itself – superamphiphobic coatings

2013, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Vollmer, Doris

Glasses, windscreens and windows have one thing in common: They become dirty. In the field of photovoltaic we are fighting against dirt adhering to solar cells as well. Meanwhile, there are coatings on which water drops hardly adhere. However, this does not apply to organic liquids. Coatings are rather seldom repelling oils, water, soapy and protein solutions at the same time. Not only oils but red wine would roll off these surfaces without leaving stains. An almost fractal structure consisting of silica spheres unveils new opportunities in this area.

Modeling thermal transport for the design of energy materials

2013, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Donadio, Davide

Controlled management of thermal energy by material design is an important step in the quest of clean and renewable energies. Predictive atomistic simulations unravel the details of heat transport in nanostructures and pave the way to engineer materials at the nanoscale. Here we illustrate applications of atomistic simulation tools to the study of heat transport in silicon-based thermoelectric materials and nano-devices and in carbon nanostructures.

From stable droplets to functional nanocapsules

2012, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Landfester, Katharina

By using a modular approach the miniemulsion process allows for the formation of complex functionalized polymer nanoparticles and the encapsulation of solid or liquid, inorganic or organic, hydrophobic or hydrophilic materials in a polymer shell. Here, different materials from organic and inorganic pigments, magnetite or other solid materials to hydrophilic or hydrophobic liquids like perfumes, vitamins, drugs, or photoinitiators can be encapsulated and deliberated in a well-defined manner. The functionalization of the nanoparticles can be easily controlled.

"Good Vibrations" – Watching Molecules at Work

2012, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Bonn, Mischa

It has been a long-standing dream to watch molecules as they rotate, translate, interact and react to form new chemicals with temporal and spatial resolution that matches the molecular scale, i.e. on femtosecond time scales and nanometer length scales. Several new laser-based vibrational spectroscopic approaches are presented here, aimed towards the realization of this dream, with a specific emphasis of watching molecules at work on surface and interfaces.

Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Medicine: Spotlight on the spin

2011, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Münnemann, Kerstin; Hinderberger, Dariush

Measurement methods which are based on magnetic resonance have become very important in the fields of modern research and medical diagnostics these days. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy and magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) use the quantum mechanical properties of the spin as a spy to gain a very detailed insight into the morphology of materials and tissues. Thus, new hyperpolarized contrast agents used in MRT now make it possible to visualize processes in the human body and provide a whole new range of possible applications in the medical diagnostics of tomorrow.

Organic electronics: environmental better, more economic and soon more efficient too

2011, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Baumeier, Bjoern; Andrienko, Denis

Electronic devices made of organic materials have certain advantages that other, inorganic devices miss. The materials that have been developed so far are however not efficient enough and are thus unfit for an area-wide application. This is due to fundamental processes on the molecular and nuclear scale which determine the storage and transportation of the charge. These processes are determined by a complex interplay of material compositions and their interactions. The Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research uses numeric simulations in order to examine and understand these processes.

Dynamic Surfaces with Triggerable Functional Levels

2010, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

del Campo, Aránzazu

Strategies to control phenomena at the interface between artificial materials and biological systems are relevant for many fields ranging from biosensing to tissue engineering. The inertness and static character of artificial surfaces contrasts with the dynamic, reversible and evolutionary character of biological processes. This gap can be filled with novel strategies that allow precise and active change of the surface properties by application of ready-available and biological friendly external fields.

Drops like it soft – Condensation on soft surfaces

2010, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Auernhammer, Günter K.

The formation of dew, i.e., condensation of water on cold substrates involves the formation of complex patterns, breath figures. Growth and merging of droplets and the overall volume of condensed liquid depend sensitively on the local environment of the droplets and the mechanical properties of the substrate. The softer the substrate, the more drops condense onto it, and the more strongly the drops interact with the substrate.

Femtosecond spectroscopy – Tracking the fate of excited states with ultrashort pulses

2009, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Laquai, Frédéric; Baluschev, Stanislav

Conducting organic materials aim to compete with traditional silicon-based technology for optoelectronic applications, for instance light-emitting diodes, solar cells and transistors. To further develop these materials for commercial applications, a profound understanding of the relation between chemical structure and optical / electronic properties is required. Recent advances in optical spectroscopy with pulsed lasers allow studying the photophysical processes down to a timescale of femtoseconds.

Organic Semiconductors for Electronic Devices

2009, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Baumgarten, Martin; Li, Chen; Feng, Xinliang; Müllen, Klaus

Organic semiconductors allow the preparation of low-cost, flexible and large-area processable devices such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), field-effect transistors (FETs), photovoltaic cells (PVs), and sensor materials. Thereby a lot of basic science is involved, since besides of technical optimizations there is also a strong need for new synthetic building blocks. Thus actual research focuses on the development of tailored functional organic materials and their processing as films of suitable morphology for the individual applications.

Curved membranes render proteins attractive

2008, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Deserno, Markus

Biological membranes, flexible bilayers composed of lipid molecules, form the outer envelope of every living cell. Many of its important properties rest on principles that can be understood using methods from soft matter physics. For instance, adhering proteins can interact with each other after imprinting a local membrane curvature, as has recently been demonstrated in computer simulations.

Hydrogen-based fuel cells: The quantum-mechanical quest for the optimal membrane material

2008, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Sebastiani, Daniel

Quantum mechanical molecular dynamics simulations and solid state NMR spectroscopy reveal structural and dynamical properties of polymeric membrane materials of modern fuel cells. The atomistic resolution allows to model the proton transport along the fluctuating hydrogen bond network. The results support the design of improved materials for proton conducting polymers, yielding significant efficiency improvements in future generations of fuel cells.

New Unconventional Methods for Micro- and Nanostructuring of Polymer Surfaces

2007, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Bonaccurso, Elmar

Three novel techniques for micro- and nanostructuring soft and delicate materials, such as polymers are presented. Compared with conventional processes they have the advantage of being low-cost, fast, and straightforward. They are based on simple physical and chemical effects: polymers can be crosslinked with plasma or UV-irradiation, and they can be locally solved or swollen with solvents.

The Molecular Nose

2007, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Sinner, Eva-Kathrin

At the MPI for Polymer Research, the combination of chemistry and biology resulted in the development of novel experimental strategies for investigation of membrane proteins. Employing the well-known strategy of in-vitro transcription and translation, proteins with subtle sensing capabilities, such as olfactory receptors, are generated and characterized. To obtain such proteins, an artificial membrane system is generated and a cell extract containing the genetic information of the receptor species of interest is added on the membrane surface. The protein synthesis machinery in the cell extract is still functional and inserts the olfactory receptor molecules into the lipid membrane. Finally, we can investigate the resulting proteins by optical and biochemical methods.

Spin probe techniques for nanostructures

2006, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Jeschke, Gunnar

The smallest functional units of organisms and soft materials have dimensions between 1 and 10 nm and are not usually repeated periodically in space. By site-directed spin labelling and modern electron spin resonance experiments it is possible to elucidate functionally important aspects of such complex structures.

Annihilation Up-Conversion Fluorescence: Non-coherent Excitation by Sun-light

2006, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Baluschev, Stanislav; Laquai, Frédéric; Wegner, Gerhard

The first experimental results for up-conversion photoluminescence excited by using ultra low (~10 W/cm²) intensity non-coherent light in solution of diphenylanthracene blended with platinum octaethyl porphyrin are presented. The crucial advantage of this bi-molecular up-conversion process is the inherent independence from the coherence properties of the excitation light.

Organic Nanoparticles as Support for Metallocene Catalysts

2005, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Klapper, Markus; Müllen, Klaus

By supporting metallocenes on µm-sized aggregated organic nanoparticles, prepared by emulsion polymerization, highly active catalysts for the olefin polymerization can be obtained. The influence of the support is studied by scanning confocal optical microscopy and videomicroscopy.

Soft Matter Dynamics

2005, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Fytas, George

Our images of organized soft matter, e.g. polymers, colloids, are dominated by static structures that provide only snapshots of the possible conformations. Since the typical energies are of the order of the thermal energy, soft matter is amenable to large fluctuations. Structural dynamics are essential for material function. The study of molecular motions over broad time and spatial ranges challenges both experimentalists and theoreticians. Three selected topics from ongoing projects should exemplify such challenges.

Images of Gases

2004, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Blümler, Peter; Spiess, Hans-Wolfgang

For the first time images of gases can be acquired my magnetic resonance techniques due to recent developments in optical polarization methods. This can be used to investigate the lung with unrivalled spatial resolution. The morphology and function of the lung down to microscopic levels can be characterized by the combination of these methods with further physical information.

Polymer Theory: From Specific Properties near a Metal Interface to Chromatin

2004, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Kremer, Kurt

We present three different fields of research in which analytic theory and computer simulation of polymers play an important role. First the relationship between the specific adsorption of single chemical groups in a polymer onto a metal surface as well as the influence on the global chain conformations are studied. The second example establishes a relation between the chain conformations and the so-called entanglement length that determines the rheology of melts respectively the module of elastomers. The third example shows that based on a relatively simple DNA model ("semi flexible worm-like chain") basic phenomena of the DNA repositioning alongside the chromatin can be understood.

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Glass that cleans itself – superamphiphobic coatings

Modeling thermal transport for the design of energy materials

From stable droplets to functional nanocapsules

"Good Vibrations" – Watching Molecules at Work

Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Medicine: Spotlight on the spin

Organic electronics: environmental better, more economic and soon more efficient too

Dynamic Surfaces with Triggerable Functional Levels

Drops like it soft – Condensation on soft surfaces

Femtosecond spectroscopy – Tracking the fate of excited states with ultrashort pulses

Organic Semiconductors for Electronic Devices

Curved membranes render proteins attractive

Hydrogen-based fuel cells: The quantum-mechanical quest for the optimal membrane material

New Unconventional Methods for Micro- and Nanostructuring of Polymer Surfaces

The Molecular Nose

Spin probe techniques for nanostructures

Annihilation Up-Conversion Fluorescence: Non-coherent Excitation by Sun-light

Organic Nanoparticles as Support for Metallocene Catalysts

Soft Matter Dynamics

Images of Gases

Polymer Theory: From Specific Properties near a Metal Interface to Chromatin