Responsive Soft Materials & Interfaces
In our group, we are excited about creating new active and dynamic soft materials, both emulsions and polymers, with tailored functions for a broad range of applications in biomimicry, self-assembled structure formation, as well as chemical and biological sensing. Using our skills as chemists, we develop new and improved concepts for using triggerable and autonomously operating soft colloids as an active element in actuators, optical and electrical metamaterials, and for signal amplification in chemical and biological sensing devices.
The activities of our laboratory span the development of novel synthetic strategies, the design of advanced materials with artificial or bio-inspired functions with a particular focus on gaining a basic physicochemical understanding of the thermodynamics and dynamics of active matter. As such, we are interested in studying the stimuli-responsive behavior of soft colloids, covalent and supramolecular transformations at liquid-liquid interfaces, and the mechanisms that govern interactions between soft materials (e.g., polymers, liquid colloids, biologicals). Our mission is to deliver a wide range of transformational science that will help to progress the state of the art in soft matter research and empower many new application concepts addressing real-world challenges with the goal of having a positive impact on society.