Using order and disorder on different length scales to tailor the properties of soft materials
Event details
| Date | 16.02.2017 |
| Hour | 17:15 |
| Speaker | Prof. Holger Frauenrath, EPFL |
| Location | |
| Category | Inaugural lectures - Honorary Lecture |
Our laboratory aims to synthesize novel organic and polymer molecules, process them into functional materials, and fabricate devices from the latter. A recurring theme in our research is the generation of hierarchical structures on the molecular, supramolecular, nanoscopic, and microscopic length scales. In this context, we attempt to mimic the way biological systems do not only accept the inevitable presence of disorder but even exploit it to obtain highly optimized structure materials.
We control the placement of disorder on some length scales, use it to create structures on others, and creates structural gradients between ordered and disordered domains to guide external fields. We have successfully implemented these concepts across very different classes of materials and achieved. For instance, we obtained organic nanowires that show an unprecedented photogeneration of charge carriers at steady-state concentrations close to the insulator-metal boundary.
Moreover, we prepared supramolecular elastomers that either show excellent elastic properties, high stiffness, and sharp melting transitions at high melting temperatures, or result in high performance damping materials.
Finally, we used the nanoscale engineering of the order-disorder interface to create semiaromatic polyamides with excellent strength and stiffness combined with a very high ductility. Hence, our results show that better understanding the intricate interplay of order and disorder on different length scales is crucial to design novel soft materials with unusual property profiles.
Program:
-Introduction by Prof. Francesco Stellacci, Director of the Supramolecular Nanomaterials and Interfaces Laboratory
-Inaugural Lecture of Holger Frauenrath: "Using order and disorder on different length scales to tailor the properties of soft materials"
Registration required: http://go.epfl.ch/frauenrath
Bio: Holger Frauenrath studied Chemistry at RWTH Aachen (Germany), where he also obtained his PhD in Polymer Chemistry in 2001. After postdoctoral research at Northwestern University (Evanston, USA), he started his own research at FU Berlin and later ETH Zurich, where he obtained his Habilitation in 2009.
He subsequently started as a tenure-track assistant professor at the Institute of Materials at EPFL and received tenure in 2016. His research encompasses organic semiconductor nanostructures, hierarchically structured supramolecular materials, and functional carbon nanomaterials, with an overarching focus on the role of the multiscale balance of order and disorder in soft materials.
We control the placement of disorder on some length scales, use it to create structures on others, and creates structural gradients between ordered and disordered domains to guide external fields. We have successfully implemented these concepts across very different classes of materials and achieved. For instance, we obtained organic nanowires that show an unprecedented photogeneration of charge carriers at steady-state concentrations close to the insulator-metal boundary.
Moreover, we prepared supramolecular elastomers that either show excellent elastic properties, high stiffness, and sharp melting transitions at high melting temperatures, or result in high performance damping materials.
Finally, we used the nanoscale engineering of the order-disorder interface to create semiaromatic polyamides with excellent strength and stiffness combined with a very high ductility. Hence, our results show that better understanding the intricate interplay of order and disorder on different length scales is crucial to design novel soft materials with unusual property profiles.
Program:
-Introduction by Prof. Francesco Stellacci, Director of the Supramolecular Nanomaterials and Interfaces Laboratory
-Inaugural Lecture of Holger Frauenrath: "Using order and disorder on different length scales to tailor the properties of soft materials"
Registration required: http://go.epfl.ch/frauenrath
Bio: Holger Frauenrath studied Chemistry at RWTH Aachen (Germany), where he also obtained his PhD in Polymer Chemistry in 2001. After postdoctoral research at Northwestern University (Evanston, USA), he started his own research at FU Berlin and later ETH Zurich, where he obtained his Habilitation in 2009.
He subsequently started as a tenure-track assistant professor at the Institute of Materials at EPFL and received tenure in 2016. His research encompasses organic semiconductor nanostructures, hierarchically structured supramolecular materials, and functional carbon nanomaterials, with an overarching focus on the role of the multiscale balance of order and disorder in soft materials.
Links
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- Sylvie Deschamps