Highlights – Institute for Materials and X-Ray Physics

27.2. - 9.3.2012 SoftMatControl, Poznan (Poland)

The international school “SoftMatControl” is a European ERASMUS Intensive Programme proposed by the universities of Rennes 1, Poznan and Saarbrücken. It offers a unique opportunity to European master and young PhD students in physics to gain exclusive skills in the understanding of out-of-equilibrium phenomena, by mastering control parameters of complexity in soft and molecular materials.

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4.2. - 14.2.2013 SoftMatControl, Rennes (France)

The international school “SoftMatControl” is a European ERASMUS Intensive Programme proposed by the universities of Rennes 1, Poznan and Saarbrücken. It offers a unique opportunity to European master and young PhD students in physics to gain exclusive skills in the understanding of out-of-equilibrium phenomena, by mastering control parameters of complexity in soft and molecular materials.

26.3.2012 Self-Diffusion Dynamics of Liquid Hexane in the Bulk State and in Nanoconfinement.

Quasi-elastic neutron scattering study on the self-diffusion dynamics of liquid hexane in the bulk state and confined in nanochannels of porous silicon published in the Journal of Chemical Physics (pdf).

26.6.2012 Study on the front broadening during water imbibition in nanoporous glass (Vycor) published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS 109, 10245 (2012).

10.8.2012 Optical birefringence study on the influence of nano-confinement on nematic liquid crystals published in Physical Review E .

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News

06.10.2026 Multimodal synchrotron X-ray analysis of palm-leaf manuscripts

Combining synchrotron X-ray scattering and fluorescence with machine learning, we identified structural and compositional signatures in historical palm-leaf manuscripts that discriminate between botanical genera and reflect their processing. The non-destructive approach provides a material science basis for provenance studies, complementing codicological and historical evidence. See our publication in npj Heritage Science and the press release.
17.09.2026 A Tale of Two Waters: H₂O and D₂O Electrify Surfaces Differently

Hydrophobic nanoporous silicon acts as a single platform for comparing three solid–liquid triboelectrification regimes: immersion–emersion, droplet contact, and pressure-driven pore intrusion, with H₂O and D₂O highlighting isotope-dependent electrical responses. Rather than providing one simple mechanism, the study published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C opens new questions about the molecular origins of water–solid electrification—and shows how isotope substitution can help uncover them.

J. Phys. Chem. C (2026) 130 (36): 12748–12756.

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.6c04134
05.06.2026 Water, Clay and Carbon: A New Route to Sustainable Energy Storage

🌎 Water, Clay and Carbon: A New Route to Sustainable Energy Storage - we demonstrate an all-water supercapacitor stable over 60,000 charging cycles.

💧⚡Can pure water store electrical energy? A research team within the Cluster of Excellence BlueMat – Water-Driven Materials has now shown that it can.

🔋 By confining water within nanometer-sized channels in clay minerals, the team developed a supercapacitor capable of efficiently storing and transporting electrical charge with remarkable stability.

💡 Read more in our latest press release ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dttmcBcQ

Publication:
Artemov, V. et al., All-water supercapacitor enabled by 1-nm clay channels, Nat Commun 17, 5014 (2026).

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-73924-1
23.04.2026 Lehmann Prize awarded to Patrick Huber

🏆 Congratulations to Patrick Huber on receiving the Volker Lehmann Prize for the most outstanding talk at the 2026 Porous Semiconductors Science and Technology Conference (PSST2026) in Naples, Italy.

💧 His presentation, “Nature’s Blueprint: Water-Enabled Functions in Hierarchically Porous Silicon,” showcased key research directions of the Cluster of Excellence BlueMat: Water-Driven Materials.

🏆 The Lehmann Prize honors Volker Lehmann, who—together with Leigh Canham and Ulrich Gösele - co-discovered the quantum confinement effect in silicon.
22.10.2025 Water as an energy carrier: nanoporous silicon generates electricity from friction with water

Exciting news! Our new publication in Nano Energy presents a novel way for converting mechanical energy into electricity – by harnessing water confined in nanometre-sized pores of silicon as the active working fluid (press release).