Miniature actuators, which produce large strains at short response times are of interest for nano- and biotechnologies. This project is focused on cylindrical brush molecules which consist of a flexible backbone and densely grafted side chains.

Depending on the surrounding environment and the effect of an external field, molecular brushes can change their length and eventually the overall shape. It is proposed to use such soft cylinders with a stimuli-responsive shape as a multifunctional platform for the development of nanomechanical devices.

Conformational transitions and the corresponding stimuli response of macromolecules provide a fundamental means for the molecular assembly and function of biological systems. Establishing a likewise control factor in the field of synthetic macromolecules is recognized as a major challenge in nanotechnology.

Our objective is the investigation of phase transitions on a significantly smaller length scale with detailed molecular resolution. Here, we are interested in the shape control and the interfacial ordering of hyperbranched macromolecules, whose branching topology provides a variety of competitive interactions.

Many practical processes depend on the spreading of a liquid on a solid. The liquid may be a paint, a lubricant, an ink, or a dye. In all cases, precise knowledge of the wetting morphology and the dynamics of the spreading process is required. By employing modern microscopic techniques, we monitor the spreading kinetics of polymer fluids with molecular resolution. Complementary to that, we are interested in stability of thin polymer films and development of non-equilibrium patterns with a high degree of order on the submicrometer length scale.