Ongoing Projects
Overarching Research Concept
The Göstl group works at the interface of organic synthetic chemistry, polymer chemistry, photophysics, and materials science. It has set itself the goal of understanding and utilizing the interactions of mechanical stress with polymer materials.
The group members of the Göstl group work hand in hand and combine their unique competencies to achieve these transdisciplinary goals. The core of the group has its expertise in organic synthetic chemistry and polymer chemistry to ensure the design and realization of functional materials. In addition, the substantial analysis and definition of research questions in a multidisciplinary context is guaranteed by experts from colloid and material sciences.
To the Project Overview
What I cannot create, I do not understand
Optical Force Probes
Through the targeted synthesis of small molecules that act as predetermined breaking points in polymer architectures, we track processes and material changes in a scale-invariant manner from the macro level to the individual molecule. On the one hand, we want to use optical force probes to analyze artificial polymer systems and use "molecular fractography" to elucidate how they react to different forms of mechanical stress. The spectral properties of these optical force probes are tailored using organic-chemical methods.
Chemical Reactivity
On the other hand, we activate chemical (catalytic) processes through force- and light-induced selective bond cleavage and isomerization, which generates reactive centers that we in turn use to improve polymer systems. For example, we implement self-healing processes to extend the life cycles of polymers. Molecular motifs that dissipate force are also introduced as so-called "sacrificial bonds" and serve a similar purpose. The targeted shortening of polymer lifetimes, on the other hand, is achieved through the remote-controlled switchable degradability of polymer materials.
The Elucidation of Molecular Reaction Pathways
The molecular understanding of the individual elementary steps of a force- or light-induced reaction plays a fundamental role here. In addition to established methods such as NMR, GPC, mass spectrometry, and optical spectroscopy, we also develop in situ methods that enable us to follow the force- or light-induced reaction at the molecular level as it takes place. For example, we integrate tensile strain experiments with confocal microscopy.
