Aural Inhalt

Department 6 Materials Chemistry

The aim of the Materials Chemistry department is to develop and characterise advanced materials, with multifunctional properties, across multiple scales using sustainable and innovative methods.

We offer solutions to our customers’ material science problems. These solutions are facilitated experimentally and digitally, through cross-scale material development and characterisation to go from concept to realisation over the life cycle of advanced materials. This is accomplished via in silico design, to ensure direct interactions between experiments, modelling and simulations.

Material characterisation through the correlative acquisition of complementary physical and chemical properties, enables a comprehensive understanding of Advanced Materials.

Our strength lies in the rapid aggregation of data from complementary methods to increase the safety and reliability of materials. To do this successfully, Reference materials, reference methods and reference data make important contributions to this. We use our expertise to develop methodologies and implement them using scientific, technical, and normative strategies.

Advanced Materials

"Advanced Materials" are materials whose structure and properties (mechanical, electrical, optical, magnetic, etc.) are specifically adapted to perform a particular function/application (e.g. energy conversion, conductivity, self-repair, deformability, decontamination, etc.). This includes materials whose properties have been produced through the development of special process and synthesis strategies (advanced manufacturing). This encompasses both inorganic and organic materials, as well as hybrid materials.

Advanced materials often only exhibit desirable characteristics when they possess a specific structure or are organised in a defined way. Some examples of this are 2D materials, functional surfaces, thin films, and functionalised particles with large surface-to-volume ratios that can maximise the interaction with the environment or to induce new effects.

Tailored design and research into the synthesis of advanced materials and their characterisation are crucial for key technologies such as nano- and biotechnology.