Laboratory of Organic Chemistry and Functional Materials
Department of Chemistry
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Brook-Taylor-Str. 2
12489 Berlin
Germany
Organic synthesis enables the precise generation of functional molecular building blocks and constitutes the basis of chemical approaches that our group is developing to address various aspects of materials science. We are convinced that the design of custom-tailored molecular nano-objects and their integration into functional nanosized structures will be key to the future bottom-up fabrication of miniaturized devices and the creation of new responsive “smart” materials. Our work is primarily focused on the synthesis of (macro)molecules with defined shape and function. Complementing our synthetic efforts, we investigate structure-property relationships of the resulting materials on both the single molecule and the ensemble levels in solution and in the bulk as well as at interfaces.
What We Do
Currently our main efforts are directed towards:
Designing functional foldamers, in particular hollow as well as responsive helically folding oligomers and polymers for the design of organic nanotubes and sensing applications.
Developing photoresponsive (switchable and triggerable) catalyst and transport systems for signal amplification, controlled release, and smart materials/surfaces.
Controlling conformation, self-assembly, and chemical reactivity (switching and covalent bond formation) of individual molecules on solid substrates for nanoconstruction and molecular-scale electronics and sensing.
Constructing macromolecular and supramolecular architectures with precise arrangement of multiple chromophores for advanced optoelectronic devices.
News
May-June-July 2009
Ragnar, Sebastian, and Robert are finally PhinisheD - Congratulations! You guys were very special and will sorely be missed.
June-July 2009
Matthew Golder (University of Rochester, New York) just joined the group over the summer as a DAAD-RISE student.
June 2009
Marie has just been selected to receive a prestigious Kekule Doctoral Fellowship of the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie - Congratulations!
May 2009
The collaborative research center SFB 658 "Molecular Switches at Surfaces" will be funded for a 2nd period of four years - this is good news and motivation as there is certainly plenty of work ahead.
February 2009
In collaboration with the groups of Dr. Leonhard Grill (Dept. Phys., FU Berlin) and Prof. Christian Joachim (CEMES-CNRS, Toulouse) we were able to exploit our recently developed on-surface polymerization methodology to prepare long defect-free polyfluorene wires and charge transport was measured through a single wire continuously as a function of its length. The publication just appeared in Science.
January 2009
Our joint efforts with the group of Prof. Paolo Samori (ISIS Strasbourg) to utilize conformational changes in "clickates" induced by changes in pH or metal ion coordination to switch 2D self-assembly at the liquid-solid interface are described in a recent communication in Chemistry A European Journal.
September 2008
Our work on periodic switching, carried out together with the group of Dr. Leonhard Grill (Dept. Phys., FU Berlin), has just appeared in Nature Nanotechnology and describes a fundamentally new approach to address multiple switches collectively in a regular "switching lattice" on a metal surface.
May 2008
Maike's & Ragnar's work on photoswitchable bases just got accepted and will be published in a forthcoming issue of Angewandte Chemie. Congratulations also to research student Andreas Kühn, who synthesized the second generation base.
May-June 2008
Mary Nguyen (UT Austin) is joining the group over the summer as an NSF CESRI Fellow.
April 23-24, 2008
Chemistry double header "Tag der Chemie" und "Innovationskongress Chemie und Biotechnologie" in Adlershof!
March 2008
Robert's work on "clickamers" just got accepted and will be published in a forthcoming issue of Angewandte Chemie.
