Research Areas

Our research topics may be placed between materials science, chemistry, biology, physics and more recently medicine. Our activities always start with the synthesis of small organic molecules and polymers and aims towards the development of functional materials. One focus of our research is surface science. We use small molecules for the fabrication of self-assembled monolayers on various substrates such as known oxides or noble metals but also new materials such as diamond.
Another focus is set to functional polymers. As a polymer chemistry group, we develop novel polymers often from scratch: starting with the synthesis of new monomers and study of the polymerization behavior all the way to the preparation of complex polymer architectures and, in cooperation with other groups, investigation of their properties and self-organization into supra-molecular entities.
Both research aspects are linked by our interest in the preparation and properties of polymers at surfaces. Here, the synthesis of polymer brushes via surface-initiated polymerization is a major topic of our research.