27.05.2020 Our article "Ionic liquid dynamics in nanoporous carbon: A pore-size- and temperature-dependent neutron spectroscopy study on supercapacitor materials" has been published as Editors' Suggestion in Physical Review Materials.

Ionic liquids imbibed in nanoporous carbons are promising hybrid materials for electrochemical energy storage, conversion and harvesting. These functionalities crucially depend on the ionic mobility in the pore space. Here we demonstrate that quasielastic neutron scattering, specifically the so-called fixed energy window experimental technique, is particularly suitable for a fast access of the confined ionic liquid’s dynamic landscape as a function of pore-size and temperature. Compared to the bulk we find reduced self-diffusion mobilities. However, despite this slowing-down, the temperature range of the liquid state upon nanoconfinement is remarkably extended to much lower temperatures, which is beneficial for potential technical applications of such liquid-infused solids.

13.03.2020 Book "Soft Matter in Geometrical Confinement" published.

The book "Soft Matter in Geometrical Confinement: From Fundamentals at Planar Surfaces and Interfaces to Functionalities of Nanoporous Materials"  has been published within the part  "Soft Matter and Biomaterials on the Nanoscale: The WSPC Reference on Functional Nanomaterials" of the World Scientific Series in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.

20.11.2019 Study on the Self-Assembly of Liquid Crystals in Nanoporous Solids for Adaptive Photonic Metamaterials published in Nanoscale.

X-ray scattering and optical polarimetry evidence in agreement with Monte Carlo computer simulations that confinement-controlled self-assembly of liquid crystals in nanopores allows for designing photonic metamaterials with adaptive birefringence. Movies illustrating 3-D reciprocal space mapping of a nanopore-confined columnar liquid crystal based on synchrotron-based X-ray scattering along with the peculiar textures found in the study can be downloaded from the TORE repository of Hamburg University of Technology. This work is dedicated to Prof. Peter S. Pershan (Harvard University), a pioneer in the field of soft-condensed-matter physics, on his 85th birthday, remembering his mentoring in synchrotron-based X-ray scattering from liquids. See also the press release "Tuneable self-organisation of liquid crystals in nano pores" (in English) or Steuerbare Selbstorganisation von Flüssigkristallen in Nanoporen (auf Deutsch). 

Aug 31 - Sept 3, 2020 Minisymposium: Fluids in Nanoporous Media

organized by Gennady Gor and Patrick Huber at the 12^th International Conference on Porous Media (InterPore meeting), Aug 31 - Sept 3 2020 in Qingdao, China.