Chair of Particle-Based Materials Chemistry (PBMC)
Our research

In the Supraparticle Group, we design highly functional supraparticles, i.e., particles of a few µm in size that are composed of nanoparticle (and molecular) building blocks.
These complex entities are achieved via forced assembly of the (nano) building blocks, mainly by using the technique of spray-drying.
We study how structure, besides (multimaterial) composition, of such supraparticles affects the interaction among the building blocks of these entities and how this leads to unique functionalities.
We exploit these findings for designing highly innovative communicating / interactive supraparticles and multifunctional adsorber / carrier and catalyst entities.
Many different material systems are studied in the group, but a special focus is on iron oxide nanoparticle-based magnetic systems and their characterization in particularly via magnetic particle spectroscopy (MPS), a to date rather unexplored approach that we pioneer.
Find out more, here.
Transfer to real-life application is achieved together with the Fraunhofer part of our group at Fraunhofer ISC in Würzburg.
Ultimately, via smart supraparticles, we aim at contributing to sustainability.

We transferred the good old thermite reaction into the world of supraparticles! The article was just accepted in ACS Applied Nano Materials.
Raczka T., Groppe P., Hurle K., Moritz M.S., Papp C., Mandel K., Wintzheimer S.*
Thermite Reactions within Liquid Gallium/Iron Oxide Supraparticl...
We pioneer the design of magnetic supraparticles as information-providing objects that can be read-out via magnetic particle spectroscopy. The potential and the challenges from our experience are outlined in an invited article that was just accepted in Accounts of Materials Research. It nicely sums ...
Karl has been appointed by FAU President Prof. Dr.-Ing. Joachim Hornegger to the Chair of Particle-Based Materials Chemistry (PBMC) at our Department!
With Karl Mandel’s appointment to the W3 professorship in Particle-Based Materials Chemistry, the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy at FAU is als...
...on MOF nano thermometers in context of the CRC1411 (LINK)
Joshi M., Riesner M., Wang Z., Mireskandari S., Nanda R., Reber R., Huber C., Fischer M., Fainblat R., Mandel K., Wisser D., Segets D.,* Bacher G.,* Wisser F.M.,* Hartmann M.*
Europium(III)/Terbium(III) Mixed Metal-Organic Frameworks a...
Atomic layer deposition of Pt on supraparticles can yield highly tunable heterogeneous catalysts. Our collaborative work with many other groups at FAU and FU Berlin was now published in Chemistry of Materials.
Groppe P., Müller V., Will J., Zhou X., Zhang K., Moritz M.S. , Papp C., Libuda J., Ret...
Great collaboration with our longest collaborator Klaus Müller-Buschbaum from Gießen (LINK), on a topic of anti-counterfeiting (NanoMOF-Based Multilevel Anti-Counterfeiting by a Combination of Visible and Invisible Photoluminescence and Conductivity) – just accepted in Advanced Functional Materials!...
The scientific stay of Svitlana Gryn from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv was very fruitful. Together with her colleagues in Ukraine and us, we were able to demonstrate the “Design of hierarchical TS-1 zeolites using spray-drying for enhanced catalytic activity in cyclic carbonate f...
We have another doctor! Huanhuan Zhou graduted with her topic on "Altering nanoparticle dispersion parameters for structural control of spray-dried supraparticles" - Congratulations Huanhuan!
We have another freshly baked Doctor in the group: Philipp Groppe defended his Thesis on “Spray-dried nanoporous supraparticles as adjustable support structures for catalytically active materials” with great success. Congratulations, Dr. Groppe!
As proposed in the ERC SmartRust project, it is quite a puzzle to detangle magnetic intra- and inter-supraparticle interactions. With support from Noah Kent (MIT), we made a step further on this as described in our just accepted article in Small.
Wolf A., Heinlein M., Kent N., Müssig S., Mandel K...