Welcome to the Research Initiative BlueMat: Water-Driven Materials

It’s official: with an inaugural ceremony on 26 February on the DESY Campus in Hamburg, the DESY-initiated Centre for Molecular Water Science (CMWS) Consortium has formed. The CMWS is a Europe-wide research network in the field of molecular water research, crossing subjects, disciplines, and methods. Forty-seven founding members from twelve countries – including fourteen German universities, including TUHH, and eight Helmholtz Centres – have signed the CMWS Declaration. As strategically important partners, they complement the pan-European excellence network for molecular water science with the unique analytical possibilities on the DESY campus in Hamburg-Bahrenfeld and will play a major role as partners in BlueMat's research endavours.

Hamburg University of Technology today presented its application for the Cluster of Excellence ‘BlueMat: Water-Driven Materials’ to the expert jury of the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Patrick Huber and Stella Gries from Hamburg University of Technology and DESY are investigating how liquids are distributed in thin layers of porous silicon, one of the materials used in BlueMat.

Prof. Christian Cyron, Head of the Institute of Continuum and Materials Mechanics at TU Hamburg and Head of the Institute of Materials Systems Modeling at the Helmholtz Center Hereon, together with Prof. Gerhard A. Holzapfel (TU Graz) and Prof. Sebastian Kozerke (ETH Zurich), has successfully acquired a prestigious ERC Synergy Grant. Hereon is coordinating this ERC Synergy Grant.

Alexander Schlaich, who has been working as a junior research group leader at the Center for Simulation Science (SC SimTech) as part of the Cluster of Excellence “Data-Integrated Simulation Science” at the University of Stuttgart since 2021, has already been involved in researching porous media: “The aim here is to use the large surface area of small cavities to remove water contamination, desalinate seawater or store energy, for example.” As such, his expertise fits perfectly with the requirements of the BlueMat initiative, which aims to develop sustainable and interactive material systems inspired by nature from the special properties of water and aqueous solutions. Prof. Schlaich has been directly appointed by TUHH and will help to drive BlueMat forward in terms of quality and profile.