On Thursday, January 29th, at 1 pm, Bhargavi Parthasarathy will present her Master Thesis with the title "A Molecular Dynamics Study of Bovine Haemoglobin Adsorption on an Ion-Exchange Medium". The presentation will take place in room O 2.083

Save the Date!

When: 9. Februar 2026 - 13:30 to 17:00 h Where: Technische Universität Hamburg, Audimax I On 9 February 2026, we will celebrate the official opening of the BlueMat Cluster of Excellence. The programme will include a welcome address by the President of TUHH, along with contributions from guests from politics and the scientific community. Afterwards, we warmly invite everyone to join us for a celebration to mark the launch of our Cluster of Excellence. Please find the preliminary agenda here.

Die Fachgruppe tagt diesmal vom 25. bis 27. Februar 2026 an der TU Graz auf Einladung von Prof. Thomas Gamse.

We are delighted to share that our project partners IRES have travelled to Germany in December 2022 to visit the pilot line developed by HTWK Leipzig and the production at Hamburg University of Technology. During the visit in both sites, IRES had the chance to conduct an on-site exposure assessment on the production line of the textile reinforced concrete and an on-site evaluation of the safety aspects and emission potential during the various stages for the aerogel production and handling. For more information about the progress of the iclimabuilt project you can visit our website: https://iclimabuilt.eu/

On November 24, the first aerogel workshop took place within the framework of our Dahrendorf project on the EU project NanoHybrids (funded by the BMBF, funding code 01DT22001) in cooperation with the KINDERFORSCHER AN DER TUHH. 13 students from grade 11 of the Carl-von-Ossietzky-Gmynasium visited our institute and conducted experiments on the topic of aerogels under the guidance of Gesine Liese, Julia Husung (KINDERFORSCHER AN DER TUHH) and Dr. Baldur Schroeter. Protein gels already produced in the school lessons were dried using various methods like ambient and supercritical drying and different biopolymer hydrogels were produced in our aerogel lab. In addition to the practical part, we conducted also campus and institute tours and gave information about studying at TUHH. The students were accompanied by our former employee Xihua Hu as teacher. We are looking forward to the next workshop!

On November 11th at 11:00 p.m., Finn Baron will present the results of his Bachelor Thesis with the title: "Synthese von Elektrokatalysatoren mittels Deposition von Platinnanopartikeln auf Cellulose Kohlenstoffaerogelen".

In their yearly overview over the "Top Ten Emerging Technologies in Chemistry", the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) presented the ultra light aerogels as innovative material in thermal insulation, water/air purification and biomedical applications. In particular, the biocompatibility and biodegradability of many aerogels was highlighted and provides greener solutions compared to other available alternatives.

On November 10th at 1:00 p.m., Kaspar Eucken will present the results of his Bachelor Thesis with the title: "Experimentelle und molekulardynamische Untersuchung des Quellverhaltens stimuli-responsiver Gele in binären Lösungsmittelgemischen am Beispiel von Poly-(N-isopropylacrylamid)".

"Chemical Engineering Research and Design proudly releases a special issue titled “Women in Chemical Engineering” to recognize and showcase top women researchers across the globe, in different stages of their careers, who are conducting pioneering research in their field of study." - Chemical Engineering Research and Design 187 (2022) 62-68.

Dr. Marc Fricke and Dr. Raman Subrahmanyam of aerogel-it, Osnabrück, Germany, talk with Dr. Vera Koester for ChemistryViews about their 100 % bio-based superinsulating lignin aerogel, their buy-out from BASF, and their different paths from pure science research to entrepreneurship.

Baldur Schroeter won the poster award at the 6th International Seminar on Aerogels 2022 for his work on transparent cellulose aerogels from salt solutions, selected from 64 outstanding entries.

28. bis 30. September 2022 TU Hamburg hostet zum vierten Mal „International Seminar on Aerogels“, welches vom 28. bis 30. September 2022 in Hamburg stattfinden wird. Hier treffen sich Wissenschaftler, Ingenieure, Studenten und Industriepartner, die mit Aerogele arbeiten oder daran interessiert sind, etwas über Aerogele zu lernen und sich auf der fachlichen Ebene auszutauschen. Präsentiert werden Beiträge zu allen Themen rund um Aerogele, einschließlich Synthese, Charakterisierung und Anwendungen in verschiedenen Bereichen. Frau Prof. Smirnova hat das „International Seminar on Aerogels“ gemeinsam mit  “International Society for the Advancement of Supercritical Fluids” (ISASF) in 2012 ins Leben gerufen. Seit dem findet die Konferenz alle 2 Jahren statt. In 2022 werden mehr als 150 Besucher aus der ganzen Welt erwartet. Im Anschluss findet die Fachsitzung der ausgewählten Gruppen der Europäischen COST Action „AERoGELS“. Die COST-Aktion AERoGELS hat zum Ziel, das Wissen über Forschung und Technologie von Aerogele auf europäischer Ebene aus dem akademischen Bereich, der Industrie und von Regulierungsexperten zusammenzuführen. Hintergrund COST Action: https://cost-aerogels.eu/about/about-us/ Aerogele sind eine besondere Klasse mesoporöser Materialien mit sehr hoher Porosität und einstellbaren physikochemischen Eigenschaften. Obwohl einige Arten von Aerogelen bereits auf dem Markt für Baumaterialien und in der Luft- und Raumfahrttechnik eingesetzt werden, muss das volle Potenzial von Aerogelen für andere Sektoren noch weiterentwickelt werden. In dieser COST Action wird der Einsatz von Aerogele speziell für Anwendungen in den Bereichen Umwelt und Life Scince in einem multidisziplinären Ansatz untersucht, um zwei der wichtigsten aktuellen europäischen Herausforderungen zu bewältigen: Kreislaufwirtschaft und aktives Altern.

At the MSI Conference 2022 in Singapore, Kathrin Eckert earned the Best Presentation award for her study on phase equilibria in smart PNiPAAm gels using PC-SAFT and molecular dynamics.