26.9.2015 Photowalk at Deutsche Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg (Germany)

26.9.2015 PhotoWalk at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY)

Pictures can be found here.

Elastic Response of Mesoporous Silicon to Capillary Pressures in the Pores

29.6.2015 Study on the elastic response of mesoporous silicon upon capillary condensation of water published in Applied Physics Letters.

 

Invited Topical Review on Soft Matter in Hard Confinement

13.2.2015 Topical review on "Soft matter in hard confinement: phase transition thermodynamics, structure, texture, diffusion and flow in nanoporous media" published in Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter.

 

Switchable imbibition in nanoporous gold

1.7.2014 Study on Switchable imbibition in nanoporous gold has been published in Nature Communications and featured as Nanotechnology Spotlight by nanowerk (in English and German) and as article "Kapillarwirkung auf Knopfdruck" by Spektrum der Wissenschaft (in German). The press release by Hamburg University of Technology can be found here.

The capillarity-driven uptake of liquids by porous solids can be experienced in daily life, e.g., when a sponge imbibes water. Here, we demonstrate that this process can be switched on and off reversibly when nanoporous gold takes the role of the sponge and an electric potential is used to control the surface tension.

Towards bio-silicon interfaces with chitosan

9.9.2014 Towards bio-silicon interfaces: Formation of an ultra-thin self-hydrated artificial membrane composed of dipalmitoyl-phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and chitosan deposited in high vacuum from the gas-phase (pdf), published in the Journal of Chemical Physics - see also the press release of the American Institute of Physics.

 

Organic and inorganic materials grouped together to bridge the gap between biology and physics.

Credit: S.E.Gutierrez-Maldonado/FCV

  1. Flow-induced pattern formation in organic thin films
  2. Paranematic-to-nematic ordering in porous silicon and silica
  3. X-mas trip to ChocoVersum (Hamburg)
  4. SFB Workshop 2015

Page 14 of 23

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).