Ultrafast X-ray imaging at the European XFEL of a water droplet sucked into a hierarchical porous silicon membrane by capillary action - Institute for Materials and X-Ray Physics

18.11.2024 Ultrafast X-ray imaging at the European XFEL of a water droplet sucked into a hierarchical 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.
May 2024 - At this year's PSST conference in Brno (Czech Republic) Stella Gries received the prize for the talk of the day. Congratulations to her and also to Manfred May for the 2nd place in the best poster award of the conference!
March 2024 - Revolution through Water

A new research initiative has been launched at the TUHH with a strong involvement of our institute. See the project website here and also a research news contribution on this research project here.
08.11.2023 New group photo!