Jack of all trades from the polymer lab

A young researcher at the GKSS Research Centre Geesthacht is developing artificial materials with very special properties. Her work opens up opportunities in high-tech industries that are among the economy's growth drivers. A warped plastic bottle lying in the scorching sun exemplifies the problem. Many plastics cannot stand high temperatures. And it's better to keep them away from aggressive chemicals. However, no such precautionary measures are needed for the materials that come from the Young Investigators Group on "Polyoxazol-based nanocomposites" headed by Dr. Dominique de Figueiredo Gomes. The chemical engineer fine-tunes her materials for applications in high-tech industries. She uses nanoparticles to make the extremely light materials hard, resilient and chemically active. The carbon atoms that have been stringed together in a polymer create chains that intertwine and so hold together like a ball of wool. "The special alignment of the atoms as rings explains part of the special properties," explains the leader of the Young Investigators Group. Furthermore, nitrogen atoms have been integrated at certain points, expressed in the name given to the polymer group that she studied: "azol". The breakthrough came when she succeeded in producing a plastic from these that contains long chains, a requirement for producing mechanically stable membranes of the kind that are absolutely essential for many applications.

By attaching further chemical groups to the chain, Dominique de Figueiredo Gomes was able to experiment with these and could later progressively modify the material in many respects. The polymer now dissolves in organic solvents, making it easier to process. "We meanwhile see that it can withstand many aggressive chemicals and temperatures up to 500 degrees - quite a feat for plastics," says the scientist who was born in Brazil, came to Germany around six years ago and now has a family here. The chemical engineer spends a lot of her time working on chemical synthesis and has been adding silicate nanoparticles to the polymer network for quite a while, work that calls for great precision, intuition and experience. "It's a compound made of silicon and oxygen that makes the plastic more mechanically resilient," she says.

In the future, she also wants to use carbon nanotubes. Her cooperation partner at the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) has already been doing intensive work on these. This will enable the plastic to develop new functions, including the ability to act as a catalyst, i.e. to facilitate the energy-generating reaction of hydrogen and oxygen to form water in a fuel cell. However, using nanoparticles and polymers is no easy matter, because they do not combine easily. This is why Gomes first has to modify the surface of the tiny items. If she's successful, her plastic will become highly interesting for industry. She is convinced that she will then find a company to manufacture it. Because the special properties mean that the material is not only suitable for fuel cells, but also for light-weight engineering and as anti-corrosive coatings for magnesium sheets. Since her novel material is light and at the same time resilient, components made of the new plastic will weigh less than if they had been made with conventional materials. "That saves energy," explains Gomes. The new material could also be used as an innovative material in high-tech industries, such as the automotive and aircraft industries.