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.

PatrickBestTalk

31.07.2009
 Patrick wins the best talk award at the Nano- and Microfluidics workshop in Bad Honnef, Germany. He presented work of Simon Gruener on spontaneous imbibition dynamics of linear hydrocarbons (n-alkanes) in mesoporous silica. Congrats to both !

Optical Birefringence Study on Confined n-Hexane

17.07.2009
 Surprisingly, spatially nano-confined liquid n-hexane is still an isotropic liquid: We did not find any hints of collective orientational order as a function of filling of glass capillaries with 7 nm mean diameter and 400 micrometer length. A combined optical birefringence/vapour sorption isotherm study reporting this message was published in Physical Review B today. The absence of any orientational order in the confined liquid state highlights the importance of an anisotropic crystallization process named after Percy W. Bridgman (a Harvard scholar and Nobel Laureate) for the occurence of preferred orientations upon solidification of n-hexane and medium-length n-alkanes in nanochannels of mesoporous silicon.

  1. X-ray diffraction study on n-hexane in porous silicon
  2. Capillary Rise of Water in Nanopores
  3. EXIST-priME-Cup

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News

  • 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).

  • 29.09.2025 Colossal Effect of Nanopore Surface Ionic Charge on the Dynamics of Confined Water

    In a recent publication, we report a particularly rewarding result from a French-German collaboration linking Hamburg, Rennes, Grenoble and Paris, with key neutron scattering experiments carried out at the high-flux neutron reactor of the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France. 

    We show that water behaves very differently when confined to tiny nanopores—and that surface charge makes all the difference. Adding ionic charges to pore walls dramatically slows down water motion, not just in the vicinity of the pore wall but throughout the entire pore. This long-range control goes far beyond simple wetting effects and highlights surface charge as a powerful tool for using water as a nanoscale working fluid in water-driven materials, membranes, and nanotechnologies.

  • 09.09.2025 When symmetry breaks in tiny spaces

    Nanopores unlock hidden chirality in exotic liquid crystals – with the observation now made by us within an international cooperation with Ukraine, France and Poland, they might find even wider usage in energy storage or conversion or tunable lenses (see press release).

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

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

    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.