Interdisciplinary Graduate School 611

Design and Characterisation of Functional Materials

This interdisciplinary Graduate School focuses on the function-specific tailoring and characterisation of outer and inner surfaces as well as on internally structured compact materials. Our aim is to develop uses of such materials in heterogeneous catalysis, electrical, optical and magnetic switches and communication, and to generate composite materials for specific areas of application within materials science.

Starting point can be a bulk material, which is modified - particularly surface-modified - or acts as a carrier for (mono-layer) coating by physical and chemical deposition. Alternatively, nano- and micro-structured (multi-layer) particular materials can be the basis for generating (functionalised) meso-porous materials, as can molecular to nano-sized precursor compounds, clusters and colloids.

We employ a wide range of analytical methods, the most important of which are surface-directed methods to characterise domains and structural details down to atomic resolution (scanning tunnel and atomic force microscopy, photoelectron spectroscopy) and methods to analyse the size, shape and composition of nano- and micro-sized particles.

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last modified: 04. August 2008

Funded by:
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

Coordinator:
Prof. Dr. M. Fröba