Soft Matter Synthesis Laboratory

          The Soft Matter Synthesis Laboratory (SML) is a synthetic platform (founded in 2011) of the Materials System Engineering (MSE Program). It is located in Building 319 at the Campus North of the KIT.

          The Soft Matter Lab consists of a pool of competences in chemistry, including Organic Chemistry, Polymer Chemistry and Materials Science, underpinned by the expertises of Prof. Stefan Bräse (Institute of Organic Chemistry), Prof. Patrick Théato (Institute for Chemical Technology and Polymer Chemistry) and Prof. Jörg Lahann (Institute of Functional Interfaces).

          The main goal of the Soft Matter Synthesis Laboratory is to intellectually and experimentally support projects at the interface of Biology, Chemistry and Physics. The activities of the laboratory thus span the development of novel synthetic strategies, advanced materials design as well as optimization studies and on-demand synthesis within the MSE program.

          The figure above shows several examples of functionalized organic linkers, which are the basis material for the growth of highly porous networks, such as Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs or SURMOFs).

          Below, the left figure shows an application of such porous material as drug delivery platform, through the uptake and pH-controlled release of a cargo molecule. The right figure shows the tunable molecular separation of gas mixtures by photoswitchable nanoporous membranes (dynamic control of the selectivity).