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Welcome to the research group of Patrick Huber at Technische Universität Hamburg TUHH and the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Germany

 
Illustration of our research topics

Our research group at Technische Universität Hamburg TUHH and the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY engages in fundamental experimental research in condensed-matter physics and on novel functional materials. We explore experimentally the multiscale interplay of structure, dynamics and function of matter. We profit from the vivid and inspiring Natural and Materials Science environment of the Hamburg metropolitan area, encompassing Hamburg University (UHH), the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht for Coastal and Materials Research (HZG), and the European X-Ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL). We are a member of the Center for Intergrated Multiscale Materials Systems CIMMS, the Centre for Advanced Materials (ZHM Hamburg) and of the Collaborative Research Initiative SFB 986 “Tailor-Made Multi-Scale Materials Systems M3”. Our research projects focus on how condensed matter behaves in extreme spatial confinement, most prominently in nanoporous media, and on how to employ this fundamental knowledge for the design of advanced materials.

Feel invited to read more about our research and teaching activities, to browse our publication list or to get an impression of our group life (group members & alumni and events).

At present our main efforts are directed at an understanding of:

 

  • Self-assembly, phase transitions, and dynamics of soft molecular condensed matter in geometrical confinement.

 
  • Adsorption-induced deformation and elastocapillarity upon condensation of liquids in porous media, most prominently hierarchical porous silicon and silica.

 
  • Fluid transport and rheology of liquids in porous media, in particular in nanoporous solids (Nanofluidics).

Switchable imbibition in nanoporous gold rise experiment

 
  • Design principles for mechanical and photonic metamaterials based on combinations of hierarchical porous solids with functional soft molecular fillings (electrolytes, (bio-)polymers, liquid crystals). 

 

 

 

  • The fundamental structural and statistical properties of fluid interfaces , that is the relationship between the thermodynamics, the microscopic structure of these interfaces and their microscopic and macroscopic hydrodynamics.

Small-angle X-ray scattering experiment at a liquid crystal confined in tubular anodic aluminium oxide nanochannels

 

  • Liquid wetting and spreading at planar interfaces.

Sessile water droplet on mesoporous silicon

 

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  • News

01.12.2020 Optofluidic study on liquid imbibition dynamics entitled "Precursor Film Spreading during Liquid Imbibition in Nanoporous Photonic Crystals" has been published in Physical Review Letters. The paper resulted from a collaboration with Luisa Cencha, Claudio Berli and Raul Urteaga from Argentina.

 

30.09.2020 Silicon Flexes Muscles: Our article "Giant electrochemical actuation in a nanoporous silicon-polypyrrole hybrid material" has been published in Science Advances, see also a press release by DESY (English/German).

 

27.05.2020 Our article "Ionic liquid dynamics in nanoporous carbon: A pore-size- and temperature-dependent neutron spectroscopy study on supercapacitor materials" has been published as Editors' Suggestion in Physical Review Materials.

 

 

Ionic liquids imbibed in nanoporous carbons are promising hybrid materials for electrochemical energy storage, conversion and harvesting. These functionalities crucially depend on the ionic mobility in the pore space. Here we demonstrate that quasielastic neutron scattering, specifically the so-called fixed energy window experimental technique, is particularly suitable for a fast access of the confined ionic liquid’s dynamic landscape as a function of pore-size and temperature. Compared to the bulk we find reduced self-diffusion mobilities. However, despite this slowing-down, the temperature range of the liquid state upon nanoconfinement is remarkably extended to much lower temperatures, which is beneficial for potential technical applications of such liquid-infused solids.

 

13.03.2020 Book "Soft Matter in Geometrical Confinement" published.

The book "Soft Matter in Geometrical Confinement: From Fundamentals at Planar Surfaces and Interfaces to Functionalities of Nanoporous Materials"  has been published within the part  "Soft Matter and Biomaterials on the Nanoscale: The WSPC Reference on Functional Nanomaterials" of the World Scientific Series in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.

 

Aug 31 - Sept 3, 2020 Minisymposium: Fluids in Nanoporous Media

 

organized by Gennady Gor and Patrick Huber at the 12th International Conference on Porous Media (InterPore meeting), Aug 31 - Sept 3 2020 in Qingdao, China.

 

20.11.2019 Study on the Self-Assembly of Liquid Crystals in Nanoporous Solids for Adaptive Photonic Metamaterials published in Nanoscale.

X-ray scattering and optical polarimetry evidence in agreement with Monte Carlo computer simulations that confinement-controlled self-assembly of liquid crystals in nanopores allows for designing photonic metamaterials with adaptive birefringence. Movies illustrating 3-D reciprocal space mapping of a nanopore-confined columnar liquid crystal based on synchrotron-based X-ray scattering along with the peculiar textures found in the study can be downloaded from the TORE repository of Hamburg University of Technology. This work is dedicated to Prof. Peter S. Pershan (Harvard University), a pioneer in the field of soft-condensed-matter physics, on his 85th birthday, remembering his mentoring in synchrotron-based X-ray scattering from liquids. See also the press release "Tuneable self-organisation of liquid crystals in nano pores" (in English) or Steuerbare Selbstorganisation von Flüssigkristallen in Nanoporen (auf Deutsch).