The German Research Foundation just announced that CRC 1411 will receive funding until 2028.

The long-term vision of CRC1411 is to develop particle systems with controlled size, shape and composition. The innovative approach in CRC1411 is is that these materials are first developed and optimized for specific product properties in computer models. In the second step, the computer then predicts optimal synthesis conditions that lead to particles with these desired properties. This approach reverses typical manufacturing processes and promises fast and resource-efficient access to functional particle-based materials with optimal characteristics.

Carlos Lange Bassani received an EAM Starting Grant. This grant is an encouragement for young researchers to venture into inovative and risky projects, and is a stepping stone towards ERC grant applications. Congratulations!

Simulation vs. microscopy images of nanocrystal habits. Simulations use rejection-free kinetic Monte Carlo to grow realistic-sized nanocrystals atom-by-atom. References of microscope images: [1] Xia et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 1793; [2] Ahn et al., J. Mat. Chem. C 2013, 1, 6861; [3] Chen et al., Nature Comm. 2020, 11, 3041; [4] Sun et al., ACS Nano 2021, 15, 15953, [5] Xia and Xia, Nano Lett. 2012, 12, 6038; [6] Langille et al., Science 2012, 337, 954.

Nanocrystal (NC) superlattices are a novel way to design functional materials. Nanomaterial chemists thrived in forming NCs with controlled size and shape and assembling them into superstructures. Functionality of these materials relies on precise control of NC habits and superstructure formation, as well as on the electronic coupling between NCs –that is, it is an inherently multiscale process–, but multiscale models did not keep pace with recent advances in the field.

The proposed project upscales from atomic to realistic-sized NCs with 10s-of-millions of atoms via rejection-free kinetic Monte Carlo based on the semi-Gibbs ensemble. Of interest is the role of strain accumulation affected by defects, lattice mismatch, and geometric frustration, thus kinetically entrapping NCs into lower symmetry habits –that is, NC shapes that do not comply with the symmetry of the underlying crystalline structure. Coupling with reactor scales (the environment) to understand mass transfer-limited crystallization is also pivotal to predicting the yield of denser NC populations. A multiscale understanding from atom-to-NC-to-environment will optimize NC synthesis conditions and design strategies for new NC habits.

This year we repeated the group excursion of 2021 and went climbing on the via Ferrata Norissteig und the first part of Höhenglücksteig. We had good weather and much fun. Thanks for a great day!

Everybody waiting to get started in front of Amtsknechthöhle.
Climbing up to the Noris-Brettl.

Carlos Lange Bassani received the Best Poster Award at the International Conference on Gas Hydrates – ICGH10 (https://icgh10.com/) held in Singapore from 9 to 14 of July, 2023, for the work entitled “A New Approach for Gas Hydrate Slurry Flow based on a Multiscale Model for Multiphase Flow”, in collaboration with Colorado School of Mines/USA, Mines Saint-Etienne/France, and UTFPR/Brazil.

ICGH is the most important conference in the field of gas clathrate hydrates and takes place every 3 years. Carlos Lange Bassani acknowledges the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for the sponsorship of his postdoctoral fellowship and the Emerging Talents Initiative of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg that allowed the participation in the conference.

Prof. Conference chair Prof. Praveen Linga presents the award to Carlos Lange Bassani.

Kaijie Zhao joined the group as a PhD student. He will be conducting research on the self-assembly and phase transition of particle-based materials. Welcome!

This year’s group excursion visited Streitberg in Fränkische Schweiz and consisted of several activities: kayaking, hiking, and visiting a cave. Thanks all for participating!

Kayaking on the river Wiesent.
On top of castle Neideck.

Our lab will participate again at this year’s long night of science (open door to the university).

Visit us on south campus this Saturday, May 21 from 18h to 24h and learn about other activities at: https://nacht-der-wissenschaften.de/

At the IZNF building, Cauerstrasse 3 in Erlangen visitors can perform interactive simulations or learn about our research.
Simulations can be performed on stationary computers, iPads, or on your own smartphone.

Thanks to Navid Panchi, Federico Tomazic, and Nydia Varela-Rosales for javascript/html5 coding and the design of the demos!

Check out the simulation tool here:
Interactive Particle Simulations for LN ’22