Functional Polymer (Nano)Materials

Our main scientific interests revolve around the design and investigation of novel functional polymers, which exhibit currently unavailable properties and enable new applications. The ability to design the chemical structure of macromolecular systems virtually at will, but also the possibility to exert control over their supramolecular architecture allows one to tailor the properties of this broad class of materials over a wide range. For the efficient development of new polymers it is of fundamental importance to develop a predictive understanding for the relation between the relevant molecular parameters and the macroscopic property of interest. Our interests and activities are therefore highly interdisciplinary and range from the synthesis of new monomers and polymers to advanced polymer processing, to the in-depth investigation and (in some cases) technological exploitation of these materials.

Architectural control at the nanometer length scale is an important design tool for many of our projects. The use of non-covalent interactions has emerged as another important aspect. We employ various (macro)molecular assembly processes as polymerization tools, but are similarly interested to exploit specific intermolecular interactions for the formation of targeted supramolecular architectures. Many of our current and planned future research activities are interdisciplinary and span across several disciplines. Our local, national, and international collaborations include partners whose expertise ranges from solid-state physics to biomedical engineering and medicine.

We currently have research programs in the following areas:

• New Stimuli-Responsive Materials: We are interested in designing materials which change their properties “on command”. Examples include biomimetic, mechanically adaptive nanocomposites and chameleon-like polymers, which change their optical characteristics in response to mechanical stress, temperature, or chemicals.
• Functional Molecules in Nanostructured Hosts: This approach affords hybrid materials in which the functionality of small organic molecules - for example a nonlinear optical response or fluorescence - is married with the geometric effects of a nanostructured template, resulting in new materials and devices which display properties that are absent in the respective constituents - for example lasing or optical switching.
• Structural Polymer Systems: We are interested in making “conventional” polymers better by imparting them with self-healing ability, reinforcing them with nano-scale fillers, and assembling them using supramolecular chemistry.
• Bio-Based Polymer Nanocomposites: We use nanoparticles from renewable resources to create high-performance materials.
• Electrically (Semi)conducting Conjugated Polymers: We are interested in the structure-property relationship of new conjugated polymer systems, including self-assembled and nanostructured materials, for example, for photovoltaic applications.