Mandel group

Professorship for
Inorganic Chemistry
The Supraparticle Group

Logo: The Supraparticle Group

Prof. Dr. Karl Mandel

Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy
Professorship for Inorganic Chemistry (Prof. Dr. Mandel)

Room: Room A 2.20
Egerlandstraße 1
91058 Erlangen

 

Our research

Logo: The Supraparticle GroupWe assemble complex particles, so-called supraparticles, from nano building blocks, typically by means of ­spray‑drying; other methods are employed as well. The (mostly inorganic) nanoparticle building blocks are either tailored by means of wet chemical synthesis approaches by ourselves or are obtained from collaboration partners. A focus is on magnetic, optic and adsorber building blocks.

We are interested in novel, functional properties of such supraparticles to emerge from the cooperative interplay of the combined nano building blocks. We study how the supraparticle`s structure and complex composition determines the unique functionalities. With these supraparticles, we aim at creating smart materials in the field of sustainability; examples of applications include water purification, communicating materials and interactive surfaces. Find out more, here.

Transfer to application is achieved together with the Fraunhofer part of our group at Fraunhofer ISC in Würzburg.

 

 

Our mission

 

  • We developed a marker particle that can be used to identify an object even after an event of fire. A clever combination of nano building blocks in a highly functional supraparticle makes the particle easily collectable even from ashes and optically identifiable afterwards. The work was just accepted...

  • In order to create highly functional supraparticles via spray-drying, a deeper understanding of achievable structures is necessary, a topic on which we just got an article accepted in the journal Particle and Particle Systems Characterization entitled

    “Tuning the morphology of spray-dried suprapa...

  • Susanne took part in the summer series "Six questions to" researchers of the Klaus Tschira Boost Fund 2022.

    Read the entire interview here: Susanne Wintzheimer: Feuer und Flamme für die experimentelle Wissenschaft – Klaus Tschira Stiftung (klaus-tschira-stiftung.de)

  • We are thrilled to run our supraparticle assembly on the latest innovation from Büchi! The company kindly provided us with their brand new digital spray-dryer S-300. The device is capable of measuring a lot of crucial parameters in real-time and provides SI-unit-based adjustment of all settings. Mor...

  • We had the pleasure to host Sara E. Skrabalak from the Indiana University and Editor in Chief of Chemistry of Materials and ACS Materials Letters for a talk in our group, telling about her groups work and the interesting job as an editor in chief.

  • We are happy to welcome Sara Li as new PhD c anditate in our group. Sara Li has already conducted her masters thesis in our group and we are glad to have her for a few more years. In her thesis she will focus on particulate markers whose magnetic signal is read out using a sensitive and fast measuri...