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RESPONSIVE & FUNCTIONAL SURFACES

Dr. Petra Uhlmann

Group Leader Responsive & Functional Surfaces
at the Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V.

Hohe Str. 6
01069 Dresden

Phone: +49 (0)351 4658-236
Fax: +49 (0)351 4658-281
Email: uhlmannp@ipfdd.de

 

 

Mission statement

Modular polymer brush systems with stimuli responsive properties – from fundamentals via scalability to application.

What we do...

We are using polymer brushes as a modular toolbox system for the application-oriented design of stimuli-responsive interfaces and smart coatings with novel properties. We are interested in multifunctional thin films built up by buttom-up approaches using as building blocks exactly tailored polymers and other components like nanoparticles, small or biomolecules. We are not only focused on the investigation of novel functional, adaptive or switching hybrid thin films, but also on the fundamental understanding of individual switching dynamics and swelling characteristics as well as the investigation of new switching triggers. We are particularly interested in scalability of the design of polymer brush films to adapt their manufacturing to technical coating processes and enable their use on real extended surfaces for their use in integrated systems and as functional coatings for e.g. anti-icing, sensing or bio-signaling.

Profiling projects

  • DFG SPP 2171 - Dynamic wetting of flexible, adaptive and switchable surfaces: Impact of co-nonsolvency effects on dynamic wetting (in collaboration with Dr. G. Auernhammer and Prof. A. Fery, IPF Dresden)
  • BMBF: EISAB - Active ice-repellent surfaces of rotor blades
  • several AiF projects

Collaborations

  • Dr. Eva Bittrich, PD Dr. Doris Pospiech, Dr. Michail Malanin (PB1)
  • Prof. Jens-Uwe Sommer, Dr. Holger Merlitz (PB5)
  • Prof. Mathias Schubert and Prof. Angela Pannier, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA
  • Prof. Mahmoud Al-Hussein, University of Jordan
  • Dr. Volkmar Stenzel, Fraunhofer IFAM, Bremen
  • Dr. Alexander Revzin, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA
  • Prof. Friedrich Kremer, Universität Leipzig
  • PD Dr. Karsten Hinrichs, ISAS Berlin
  • Dr. Rafael Contreras Caceres, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain

Selected publications

  • Flemming, P.; Müller, M.; Fery, A.; Münch, A. S.; Uhlmann, P., Mechanistic investigation of the counterion-induced UCST behavior of poly(N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) polymer brushes, Macromolecules 53 (2020) 1957-1966.
    DOI: 10.1021/ACS.MACROMOL.9B02666.
  • Messerschmidt, M.; Janke, A.; Simon, F.; Hanzelmann, C.; Riske, T.; Stamm, M.; Raether, B.; da Costa e Silva, O.; Uhlmann, P., Fluorocarbon-free dual-action textile finishes based on covalently attached thermoresponsive block copolymer brush coatings, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 10 (2018) 40088-40099.
    DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b11448
  • Psarra, E.; Foster, E.; König, U.; You, J.; Ueda, Y.; Eichhorn, K.-J.; Müller, M.; Stamm, M.; Revzin, A.; Uhlmann, P., Growth factor-bearing polymer brushes - Versatile bioactive substrates influencing cell response, Biomacromolecules 16 (2015) 3530-3542.
    DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.5b00967
  • Rauch, S.; Eichhorn, K.-J.; Kuckling, D.; Stamm, M.; Uhlmann, P., Chain extension of stimuli-responsive polymer brushes: a general strategy to overcome the drawbacks of the "Grafting-to" approach, Advanced Functional Materials 23 (2013) 5675-5681.
    DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201300849