Porous materials are thoroughly investigated in academic research with a view to developing innovative materials for a wide range of applications, such as tissue engineering, acoustic and thermal insulation, human protection and structural foams. Depending on their use, the porous materials need to be monodisperse, polydisperse or functionally graded. In addition, the pore size and pore connectivity also play important roles which need to be controlled and optimized for each application. We use microfluidics to generate highly-ordered monodisperse liquid templates. The polymerisation and/or cross-linking of the continuous phase leads to highly-ordered monodisperse solid foams. In our group we use (1) emulsion templating, (2) foam templating, and (3) foamed emulsion templating. Each route offers distinct benefits, enabling us to use various monomers and initiators leading to porous materials with a wide range of structures. Combining all three templating routes we are able to create materials with pore sizes ranging from a couple of µm up to several mm, opening a novel pathway towards functionally graded materials.
Current Projects
New Routes to Advanced Materials using Nanostructured Microemulsions as Templates
Staff: Dr. Philipp Menold, Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Cosima Stubenrauch