Professorship for
Inorganic Chemistry
The Supraparticle Group
Our research
![](https://www.chemistry.nat.fau.eu/files/2023/03/Scientific-Focus_Supraparticle-Group_final_online-1.png)
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.
![](https://www.chemistry.nat.fau.eu/files/2021/05/sustainability_cover_afm-1.jpg)
It was a close race: At the same time as two other international research teams, we, in collaboration with the Schühle group, published the first article demonstrating the inductively heated dehydrogenation of a liquid organic hydrogen carrier! Find ou t more, here.
Schörner M., Solymos...
Andreas Wolf presented his work on magnetic supraparticles capable of recording high temperature events in from of a poster at the 22nd International Conference on Magnetism held in Bologna, Italy. The many hours going into the design of the figures of this work payed off, as he recieved the Best Po...
As science is not always discussed best in an office or laboratory, the Supraparticle Group took off for a retreat close to Pottenstein to meet our colleagues from the Particle Technology Group from the Fraunhofer ISC and to discuss science while enjoying the local hikes and Schäuffele.
Many talk...
Nice collaboration and great where our magnetic particles finally end up.
Tischer F., Cholew S., Groppe P., Granath T., Düsenberg B., Mandel K., Drummer D., Bück A., Peukert W., Schmidt J.
Magnetic polyamide 11 powder for the powder bed fusion process by liquid-liquid phase separation and crysta...
In our latest work, we demonstrate how combining magnetic and luminescent supraparticles with a flexible polymer yields multifunctional composites for automatable induction heating with subsequent temperature verification.
Reichstein J., Raczka T., Stauch C., Schug B., Müssig S., Mandel K.,
Mult...
Congrats to Franzi for finishing her PhD journey with a successfull defense.
Her work on "Luminescent supraparticles with adjustable ID functionality" started at the Fraunhofer ISC in Würzburg in 2019. She was part of the first PhDs to set up the laboratories at FAU in 2020.
We wish her good luc...
We are happy to welcome our new group member Tero.
Tero Kämäräinen obtained his M.Sc. in Micro- and Nanotechnology in 2014 and D.Sc. in Bioproduct Technology in 2020 from Aalto University in Finland, during which he conducted experimental and computational work related to bio-based (nano)material...
In this new article, we present dual-gasochromic supraparticles that enable the visual detection of hazardous H2 gas and NH3 vapors via gas specific color change reactions. Moreover, this work shows the capability of synthetically tailoring the reaction environment within the solid-liquid-gas interf...
Last week we officially started the work within the ERC consolidator grant "Smart Rust" (Magnetic memory supraparticles for perceptual matter; ERC COG 101123921 – SmartRust), which will keep us busy for the next 5 years.
Besides some organizational matters, plenty of brainstorming and a lab tour ...
Massive effort to publish this indepth study on how structure in supraparticles affects catalytic activity. Small just accepted our article after a long way.
Groppe P., Reichstein J., Carl S., Cuadrado Collados C., Niebuur B., Zhang K., Apeleo Zubiri B., Libuda J. Kraus K. Retzer T. Tho...