This year’s annual outdoor event took us on a scenic hiking tour starting and ending in Muggendorf. Along the way, we explored the Witzenhöhle, enjoyed the view from Hohes Kreuz towards Engelhardsberg, and paused at Kuchenmühle for a break.
The day offered the right mix of nature, curiosity, and good company: cave exploration, close observation of wind-made wave patterns moving through the grass, and beaver spotting in the River Wiesent during dinner.
Arne Bringewatt joined the group as a PhD student. He will be conducting data-driven optimization of nanomaterials. Welcome!
Jyoti received a poster prize at the 21st Zsigmondy Colloquium 2026 for her poster entitled “Kinetic Monte Carlo Simulations for Twinned Nanoparticle Growth and Facet-Selective Etching.” Congratulations!
Her work uses kinetic Monte Carlo simulations to study how metal nanoparticles grow and evolve at the atomic scale. The poster focused on the formation of twinned nanoparticle structures and high-index facets, which are relevant because such defect-rich and surface-structured materials can exhibit enhanced catalytic and functional properties.
Giuseppe Soligno joined the group as a postdoctoral researcher. He will be conducting simulations of nanomaterials in solution and at interfaces. Welcome!
The Engel Lab co-organized the Particle-Based Materials (PBM) Symposium 2025, which recently concluded. Thank you to all participants for attending!
The goal of the symposium was to bring together scientists and engineers who share the common interest in creating functional materials using particles. The synthesis, processing and materials integration of particles into thin films, bulk matrices, fibers or other geometries are covered by this symposium.
Next year’s 10th PBM conference will take place in September/October at Universität Duisburg-Essen. Stay tuned!
Following the annual tradition, we made another summer excursion, this year to Brombachsee. There we explored Abenteuerwald Enderndorf (including the zipline) and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at the beach. Thanks all for joining!
How do a small number of larger colloidal particles behave when mixed with many smaller ones inside spherical droplets? We found that entropy alone drives the larger particles to the droplet surface, where they consistently settle at the twelve vertices of an icosahedral structure formed by the smaller particles. Using a combination of experiment and simulation, we showed that this trapping effect is robust and results from the system’s tendency to maximize free volume during self-assembly. These findings offer new insight into how complex structures can form without external guidance and support the design of programmable materials through simple physical principles.
Read about this work here:
Praveen K. Bommineni, Junwei Wang, Nicolas Vogel, Michael Engel
Entropic Trapping of Hard Spheres in Spherical Confinement
Physical Review Letters 134, 198201 (2025)
This year we went canoeing on the river Pegnitz near Vorra. Great fun, including some excitement, and a relaxing dinner and evening walk afterwards. See you again next year!
For the time June to November 2024 Praveen Bommineni from the National Institute of Technology Warangal (India) is conducting research in our group. A focus of joint research is colloidal crystallization in confinement. The research is funded through the guest research program of FAU and the CRC 1411. Praveen has been a postdoctoral research in the group and returning for a sabbatical.
Welcome to Erlangen!
Jyoti joined the group as a PhD student. She will be conducting research on the computational design of nanomaterials. Welcome!