Prof. Irina Smirnova recently joind the Board of Directors of the DECHEMA e.V. together with Dr. Cord Landsmann (tyssenkrupp / Uhde and Dr. rer. nat. Beate Müller-Tiemann (Sanofi-Aventis). More information about the new board members of the DECHEMA e.V. can be found here.

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/

Recently, our first project meeting of our EU Project took place in Presence at Cálem Wine Cellars in Porto, Portugal. Including our institute, a total of 27 industrial partners and universities participated in the meeting.

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.