ESRF Synchrotron Run

27.04.2010
Impressions from our most recent experimental synchrotron run at ESRF, Grenoble.

Template assisted growth of copper and semiconducting cuprous oxide

27.01.2010
Study on the use of mesoporous silicon as a template for metallic copper and semiconducting cuprous oxide deposition published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society.

X-MAS Hike 2009

18.12.2009 Christmas & Spicy Wine Hike
on the Panoroma Path (Perl, Saarland)

We enjoyed a beautiful hike on the Panorama path close to the border triangle Luxembourg-France-Germany (Perl, Saarland). Our traditional spicy wine break ("Glühweinschwenken") along with the sunny weather made even the quite low temperatures bearable. Press thumbnails to see more pictures of the trip or check Outings to see pictures from previous Christmas hikes.

Anke's Promotion

16.11.2009

Anke mit Hut

Hut Nahansicht

Anke Henschel proudly presents her mortarboard from her PhD graduation.

Congratulations!

Spontaneous Imbibition - Surface Freezing - Monolayer Sticking

20.10.2009
Ever heard of „surface freezing“ and its romantic background? This phenomenon, which arguably constitutes one of the most simple molecular self-assembly processes in nature, refers to the spontaneous formation of a microscopically thin, crystalline layer floating on top of the melt close to, but above the freezing temperature of the bulk liquid. Capillary filling experiments on molten wax in tiny pores (only a few nanometers across), published today in Physical Review Letters, testify that this collective orientational molecular ordering is also observable at advancing, highly curved liquid menisci self-propelled by capillarity in silica pores. There you may call it “meniscus freezing” and it significantly affects the imbibition dynamics in the mesoporous matrix.

  1. PatrickBestTalk
  2. Optical Birefringence Study on Confined n-Hexane
  3. X-ray diffraction study on n-hexane in porous silicon
  4. Capillary Rise of Water in Nanopores

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News

  • 22.05.2025 Cluster of Excellence "BlueMat: Water-driven materials" approved

    BlueMat has been awarded funding through the Cluster of Excellence program (ExStra)!

    Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) and its partner institutions will receive funding totalling 70 million Euro. The application process was challenging: out of a total of 143 draft proposals for new clusters of excellence, only 41 were invited to submit a full proposal. In this second round, the new applications competed with the 57 already established clusters. Of a total of 98 applications submitted, only 70 were approved. The Cluster of Excellence will initially be funded for seven years until 2033.

    We would like to thank all of our partners for their hard work. The whole team is energized and eager to begin bringing our vision to life. Stay tuned for updates as we embark on this exciting journey!

  • 26.02.2025 Centre for Molecular Water Science (CMWS) inaugurated

    The DESY-initiated CMWS is a Europe-wide research network in the field of molecular water research. The CMWS declaration has been signed by forty-seven founding members from twelve countries – including fourteen German universities and eight Helmholtz Centres. See also the corresponding press release.

  • 18.11.2024 Ultrafast X-ray imaging at the European XFEL of a water droplet sucked into a porous silicon membrane by capillary action

  • 12.09.2024 Article "Deformation dynamics of nanopores upon water imbibition" published in PNAS

    Our article shows by a combination of experiments and computer simulations of water imbibition in nanopores that the competition between expansive, surface stress release at pore walls and negative, contractile Laplace pressures of nanoscale menisci lead to an unusual macroscopic behavior of the porous medium, which is generic for any liquid/nanoporous solid combination. The results allow one to quantify surface and Laplace stresses and to monitor nanoscale flow and infiltration states by relatively simple length measurements of the porous medium.

  • 17.05.2024 - New publication: "Self-Assembly of Ionic Superdiscs in Nanopores"

    Our study on discotic ionic liquid crystals has been published in ACS Nano - see also the DESY press release.