News-Archive

04.03.2024 - PhD Defense!

Congrats to Mattes Holsten to the successful defense of his PhD thesis with the title "Löslichkeitsmodifizierte poröse organische Käfigverbindungen".

Mattes was able to decorate 2,7,14-triaminotriptycene, a building block commonly used in our working group, with solubilizing groups to obtain a series of Soluble Congeners of Prior Insoluble Shape-Persistent Imine Cages. This opens up future solution-based modifications and applications for these compounds. Furthermore, Mattes managed to obtain Single Crystals of Insoluble Porous Salicylimine Cages to investigate their packing as well as the porosity in solid state. Some of those crystal structures we were chasing since almost a decade.

It was a pleasure for us to be a part of Mattes' academic journey, we wish him all the best for his future, thank him for everything he did for the group and he will be missed as a member of our team.

04.03.2024 - Farewell to Bahiru

We want to say goodbye to Dr. Bahiru Punja Benke.

Bahiru joined our group about six years ago and applied our triptycene end-capping strategy to turn insoluble pigments such as indigo derivatives into soluble dyes. Moreover, he investigated the Dimeric and trimeric catenation of giant chiral [8 + 12] imine cubes driven by weak supramolecular interactions where he gained some fundamental understanding about the driving forces of catenation events and isolated some spectacular structures, which we were able to publish in Nature Chemistry. Furthermore, his work was highlighted as "Synfacts of the Month".

His expertise and the willingness to share his knowledge with others are just two out of countless reasons why we was a great person to have conversations with and he really will be missed in the group. Thus, we want to thank him for everything he did for the group and he will be missed as a member of our team.

01.03.2024 - Price awarded to Tobias!

Huge congrats to Dr. Tobias Kirschbaum!!

Tobi was awarded the price of the Dr. Alexander und Dr. Rosemarie Bauer-Stiftung in 2023 for his outstanding PhD thesis with the name "Chirale polyzyklische aromatische Kohlenwasserstoffe mit Affensattel-Topologie"!!

After completing his bachelor and master theses as well as a PhD in our group, Tobias moved to the R&D division of the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF in Darmstadt, Germany, to work on polymer additives.

So again, huge congrats to Tobi for this price and all the best for your future!!

Also thanks to Giada Galow for the nice picture.

22.01.2024 - Paper accepted!

Congrats to Xuan!

His paper on the Dispersion-driven formation of chiral twisted PAH double helices was accepted in Chem!

After the developement of impressive structures such as coronene nanoribbons of up to 4.2 nm length, perylene oligomeres with up to 13 linearly annulated rings or contorted PAHs with embedded azulene units, Xuan pushed our cross-coupling/condensation strategy on dihydroanthracene subunits to new limits. By careful design and a modular synthetic approach, he obtained alkyl-substituted perylene oligomers (APOs) with up to 25 benzene rings in a row and grew high-quality single crystals of all oligomers. Single crystal X-ray diffraction revealed a unique Dispersion-driven formation of these chiral twisted PAH double helices and the thermodynamic as well as kinetic behavior of double helices were studied experimentally as well as by quantum chemical calculations.

If you are interested in the story, click here or directly on the picture on the left.

Great job Xuan!

08.01.2024 - Paper accepted!

Congrats to Chris!

2024 starts with his paper on the Synthesis of Chiral Pyrene-Based 1,4-Dithiins being accepted in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.!

Chris managed to synthesis a series of chiral dithiins with one or two pyrene moieties. For the latter, three different isomers where obtained. Using chiral HPLC techniques, the chiral dithiins have been separated and either favoring or disfavoring effects on the g_abs-values have been found.

If you are interested in the story, click here or directly on the picture on the left.

Great job Chris!

11.12.2023 - PhD Defense!

Congrats to Ke Tian to the successful defense of his PhD thesis with the title "The Influence of Side Chain Modifications on the Properties of Imine Based Organic Cage Compounds".

Ke developed a series of porous organic cages to selectively adsorb fluorinated green-house gases with alarming global warming potentials such as perfluorinated alkanes and identified fluorine-fluorine interactions being the main driving force. This study found attention on a university and broader public level and added another tool to the toolbox in the development of selective adsorbents. Furthermore, he was able to obtain cage compounds with nitrogen rich cavities and tetrahedral geometry and study the influence of different substituents on the corresponding crystal packing.

It was a pleasure for us to be a part of Ke's academic journey, we wish him all the best for his future, thank him for everything he did for the group and he will be missed as a member of our team.

11.12.2023 - New  Group Members

We would like to welcome three new group members and a Scientific Guest.

Dr. Sairam Veer studied at the Savitribai Phule Pune University in India an afterwards joined the group of Dr. Santhosh Babu Sukumaran at the CSIR - National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India for his PhD on Donor-AcceptorStrapped Macromolecules and Polymers of Perylene Bisimide.

Sairam will work as a post-doc in the frame of our ERC-synergy grant TACY and will help tackling the cyclacene challenge.

Finn Plny obtained his bachelor and master degree at the Heidelberg University and worked on  Fluorenyl-Centered Azaacene Diradicals during his master thesis in the group of Prof. Dr. Uwe Bunz.

Finn will work in our ${\displaystyle \pi }$-systems team and is going to develop novel fused aromatic compounds.

Pooja Jangra studied at the Delhi University and later the Indian Institute of Technology in Roorkee, India working on high energy density materials in the group of Dr. Dheeraj Kumar during her master thesis.

Pooja is going to join our Mixes Ionic-Electronic Transport team within the RTG 2948 and is going to work on ion selective cage compound for sensing and water purification applications.

We want to welcome all three of you to our group and are looking forward to work with you!

24.10.2023 - New Post-Doc!

We would like to welcome Dr. Liping Ye as post-doc to our group. Liping studied at the Heilongjiang University in China followed by a PhD at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in the group of Prof. Dr. Miao Qian working on carbon nano-topologies.

Liping will work in the frame of our ERC-synergy grant TACY and will help tackling the cyclacene challenge.

We look forward to this exiting project and to work with you.

24.10.2023 - New technician!

We would like to welcome Madleen Drewes as new technician to our group. Madleen is going to help organizing the OC2-practical course in all technical aspects and will furthermore be involved in research projects doing syntheses.

Glad to have you on board and looking forward to work with you.

24.10.2023 - New PhD student!

We would like to welcome Fabio Quarti as PhD to our group. Fabio did his bachelor and master studies at the Università degli Studi di Padova in Italy and worked on organic cages during his master thesis in the group of Prof. Dr. Cristiano Zonta.

Fabio is going to join our Mixes Ionic-Electronic Transport team within the RTG 2948 and is going to work on ion selective cage compound for sensing and water purification applications.

We look forward to this exiting project and to work with you.

24.10.2023 - New Scientific Guest!

We would like to welcome Adrián Martínez Abelairas as Inditex-UDC-scholar to our group. Adrián is a PhD student of the NanoSelf-Group of Dr. Alejandro Criado and Dr. Jesús Mosquera at the Universidade da Coruña in Spain and is working on a collaboration project on macrocycles for three months in our group.

Glad to have you on board and looking forward to work with you.

14.08.2023 - Paper accepted!

Congrats to Mattes!

His paper on Single Crystals of Insoluble Porous Salicylimine Cages was accepted in Chem. Eur. J.!!

With a lot of patience and by the optimization of the reaction and crystallisation conditions, Mattes was able to obtain single crystal X-ray structures of insoluble [4+4]- as well as endo- and exo-functionalized [4+6]-cages and study their packing as well as gassorption behavior. This study is a nice addition to his work on solubilizing these cages which he managed before and he added Ostwald ripening to our tool box in crystal growth.

If you are interested in the story, click here or directly on the picture on the left.

Great job Mattes!

11.08.2023 - PhD Defense!

Congrats to Jochen Christian Lauer to the successful defense of his PhD thesis with the title "Synthesis and Postfunctionalisation of Organic Imine Cage Molecules".

Jochen investigated the influence of side-chains on the formation of [4+4]-imine cages and converted theses cages to hydrocarbon scaffolds as well as highly stable amide cages. Some of his cages not only act as hosts for ammonium ions but additionally by careful molecular design, Jochen was able to obtain cages that bind nitrate ions in a highly efficient manner. Jochen furthermore established several separation and evaluation techniques in our group and lifted the groups knowledge to higher levels in several aspects.

It was a pleasure for us to be a part of Jochen's academic journey, we wish him all the best for his future, thank him for everything he did for the group and he will be missed as a member of our team.

16.05.2023 - Paper accepted!

Congrats to Tobi!

His paper on the Synthesis of a Benzotrisazulene via a Trioxobenzotrisazulene was accepted in Chem. Eur. J.!!

Using the coupling/condensation-cascade he established during his studies on the monkey-saddles, Tobi was able to synthesis a contorted polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) with three azulene units. In-depth analysis by e.g. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction, UV/Vis-spectroscopy as well as quantum chemical calculations gave insights in the molecular and electronic structure of the Benzotrisazulene.

If you are interested in the story, click here or directly on the picture on the left.

Great job Tobi!

12.05.2023 - New (Old) Group Members and Scientific Guest

We would like to welcome two new group members and a Scientific Guest.

After his Master Thesis in our group Cornelius Daiber started his PhD Thesis in our group. He will work on our ERC-funded TACY-project and will explore ways toward cyclacene and other belt shaped macromolecules.

Rahul Yadav studied chemistry at the University of Delhi in Dehli, India and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in Madras, India. After a Master Thesis in the group of Prof. Dr. Mahiuddin Baidya working on Organo-Catalysis he is joining our group also working within the TACY-project.

Ankur Bhaumik is studying chemistry at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and is visiting us for an internship.

We want to welcome all three of you to our group and are looking forward to work with you!

23.04.2023 - Group retreat

Our group had an amazing three-day group retreat in Annweiler am Trifels in the palatinate forest!

The scientific program included great talks of our group members about methods, evaluation techniques and the fundamental aspects of science in general and led to a tremendous knowledge transfer within the group.

Furthermore, we had fun during endless pool billiard sessions, a Tischkicker tournement (congrats to team Yannik/Sven) as well as a hike to the beautiful Burg Trifels (as you can see on the picture).

Thanks to everybody in the group to make this happen and we  are already looking forward to the next retreat!

23.04.2023 - PhD Defense!

Congrats to Alexander Pascal Galow to the successful defense of his PhD thesis with the title "Makrozyklische Schwefelverbindungen und deren Postfunktionalisierungen".

Alex investigated the dynamic covalent behavior of disulfides and used this method to synthesize different series of macrocyclic sulfur compounds. During this process, he developed a new method to transfer disulfides to thioethers substituting the priorly used highly toxic reagents with non-toxic N-heterocyclic carbenes. For the isolation and purification of his final compounds, Alex pushed the performance of our LC-Systems to new limits.

It was a pleasure for us to be a part of Alex' academic journey, we wish him all the best for his future, thank him for everything he did for the group and he will be missed as a member of our team. Furthermore, we want to thank his wife Giada for this amazing picture.

10.03.2023 - Paper accepted!

Congrats to Dennis!

His paper on Palladium-Catalyzed Cyclization of a Pyryne Precursor to Higher Pyrenylenes was accepted in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.!!

As initially observed by Julian Petry during an M.Sc.-internship and Chantal Barwig during her bachelor-thesis, the Palladium-catalyzed cyclization of a pyryne precursor not only led to the expected trimer (the so called tripyrenylene) but also to the higher pyrenylenes. By a carefully performed purification protocol using several different techniques, Dennis was able to isolate the bi- to penta-pyrenylenes, which were fully characterized and investigated by SCXRD as well as quantum chemical methods. Furthermore, the reaction mechanism was studied by DFT-calculations.

If you are interested in the story, click here or directly on the picture on the left.

Great job Dennis!

27.02.2023 - Paper accepted!

Congrats to Lucas!

His paper on Redox-Active, Porous Pyrene Tetraone Dendritic Polymers as Cathode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries was accepted in Mater. Adv.!!

By Suzuki-Miyaura cross coupling and subsequent hydrolysis, amorphous dendrimers with permanent porosity could be obtained. Incorporated pyrene-tetraone moieties led to investigations on a potential application of the pyrene-containing materials in lithium-ion batteries and favorable kinetics with high reversibility of the occurring redox processes were found.

If you are interested in the story, click here or directly on the picture on the left.

Great job Lucas!

27.02.2023 - Paper accepted!

Congrats to Xubin and Ke!

Their paper on [4+4]-Imine Cage Compounds with Nitrogen-Rich Cavities and Tetrahedral Geometry was accepted in Org. Mater.!!

Applying imine-condensation conditions, a prochiral trispyrrolyltrialdehyde was reacted with differently substituted tris-methylamino-benzenes to form tetrahedral [4+4]-imine cages. While in solution the trispyrrolyl-unit racemizes quickly (which was supported by quantum chemical calculations performed by Moritz Schuldt), in the solid state racemic crystals of the homoenantiomeric PPPP and MMMM or heteroenantiomeric PPPM and MMMP cages are found depending on the substituents and crystallization conditions. Furthermore, the nitrogen-rich cavities with polar molecules and a Russian-doll-like alignment is found in one case.

If you are interested in the story, click here or directly on the picture on the left.

Great job Xubin and Ke!

27.02.2023 - New Group Members

We would like to welcome two new group members.

After being out scientific guest, Dr. Anjana Kunhumbadukka Othayoth will continue her work as a Post-Doc in our group. Her research will focus on the application of our selectively adsorbing cages in functional materials and the elucidation of the corresponding material properties.

Her work will continue our studies on the adsorption of greenhouse gases with high global warming potentials we recently published in Adv. Mater.!

Furthermore, we want to welcome Petra Ihrig as new technician in our group. Petra's focus will be our analytical equipment and in this respect especially the liquid chromatography devices.

25.01.2023 - Paper accepted!

Congrats to Philippe!

His paper on the Solvent-Controlled Quadruple Catenation of Giant Chiral [8+12] Salicylimine Cubes Driven by Weak Hydrogen Bonding was accepted in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.!!

Philippe investigated the system he found a chiral self-sorting for further and revealed a dependence of the ratio of single cage vs. catenane on different solvents used during the reaction. A systematic study of various solvents and the interpretation of single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis revealed weak hydrogen bonds as driving force for the occuring catenation. Furthermore, the catenation motif (quadruply interlocked) was different from the ones we observed recently (triply interlocked) for a series of [8+12] cage based on TBTQ with inversed functionalities. This new study adds another piece to the puzzle to unravel the fundamentals of catenations and their driving forces.

If you are interested in the story, click here or directly on the picture on the left.

Great job Philippe!

06.01.2023 - Paper accepted!

Congrats to Lisa!

Her paper on Two Dimensional Triptycene End-Capping and Its Influence on the Self-Assembly of Quinoxalinophenanthrophenazines was accepted in Chin. J. Chem.!!

Triptycene end-capping has become a common tool in our group to solubilize a whole variety of molecules as for example Quinoxalinophenanthrophenazines (QPPs) while remaining a tendency of the molecules to crystalize. While we have studied different QPPs with one-dimensional triptycene end-capping, Lisa developed a triphenylene based two-dimensional end-cap and found the formation of dimers in both, solution and solid-state caused by strong π-π-interactions and a shape self-matching.

If you are interested in the story, click here or directly on the picture on the left.

Great job Lisa!

22.12.2022 - Paper accepted!

Congrats to Alex!

His paper on the N-Heterocyclic Carbene Mediated Sulfur Extrusion of Disulfides was accepted in Eur. J. Org. Chem.!!

Thioethers can be found as motifs in natural compounds such as lantibiotics, find application in materials chemistry or are commonly used in cyclophanes serving as precursors of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. For their synthesis, the sulfur extrusion of disulfides to the corresponding thioethers is a potential synthetic method. Until now, aminophosphines such as HMPT (also known as liquid cancer) have been used for this purpose, despite their enormous cancerogenity. Alex developed a method using readily available nontoxic N-heterocyclic carbenes instead on aminophosphines and achieved a sulfur extrusion under mild conditions, for a broad substrate scope and in a variety of solvents.

If you are interested in the story, click here or directly on the picture on the left.

Great job Alex!

14.12.2022 - Best B.Sc. Course Award

Congrats to Sven!

His teaching in the OC2 module (seminar + lab course) was awarded with the Best B.Sc. Course Award for 2022 by the bachelor students and the Fachschaft Chemie/Biochemie.

The students awarded him for "the enjoyable atmosphere he creates during his course and his skill to explain complex topics in a simple and straightforward manner".

Good job Sven.

14.12.2022 - OPEN POSITIONS!!!

We have open positions for PhD students as well as postdocs in our new TACY project.

Find more information and details in our Vacancies Section.

If you are interested, contact us at any time via email.

We would be happy to welcome you as members in our team!

14.12.2022 - Paper accepted!

Congrats to Bahiru!

His paper on the dimeric and trimeric catenation of giant chiral [8+12] imine cubes driven by weak supramolecular interactions has been published in Nature Chemistry!!

The catenation of (porous) organic cages is a phenomenon, which amazed and puzzled researchers for a long time since the driving force is not always well understood. Bahiru systematically investigated a series of cages and found weak intermolecular interactions as driving force for the catenation which have been further studied with computational methods by Tobias Kirschbaum. Bahiru was not only able to isolate interlocked cages dimers but furthermore trimeric cage catenanes, whose structures have been identified by in-depth analysis by NMR as well as mass spectrometry. In both cases we are grateful to Dr. Jürgen Graf (OCI-NMR Department) and Dr. Jürgen Gross (OCI-Mass Department) for their contribution.

If you are interested in the story, click here or directly on the picture on the left.

Incredible work Bahiru!

14.12.2022 - PhD Defense!

Congrats to Gangxiang Zhou to the successful defense of his PhD thesis with the title "Synthesis of Interlocked [8+12] Organic Cages and Investigation of Catenation Mechanism".

As we are working on the fundamentals about the catenation of organic cage compounds, Gangxiang thoroughly investigated different factors such as cage size, reaction conditions, etc. and their influences on the catenation events.

It was a pleasure for us to be a part of Gangxiang's academic journey, we wish him all the best for his future, thank him for everything he did for the group and he will be missed as a member of our team.

10.11.2022 - PhD Defense!

Congrats to Tobias Kirschbaum to the successful defense of his PhD thesis with the title "Chirale polyzyklische aromatische Kohlenwasserstoffe mit Affensattel-Topologie".

Tobi did his Bachelor-, Master- as well as PhD thesis in our group and for the latter he developped polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with a so-called Monkey-Saddle-Topology. In his case, this three-dimensional structure was chiral and he was able to "lock" the enantiomers by adding nitrogen-atoms to his scaffold. Furthermore, Tobi's interesst in quantum-chemical calculations lifted our group to another level in this respect and thus contributed to numerous papers of his collegues.

It was a pleasure for us to be a part of Tobi's academic journey, we wish him all the best for his future, thank him for everything he did for the group and he will be missed as a member of our team.

10.11.2022 - Mastalerz Group at the 1st Workshop on Mixed Ionic-Electronic Transport

Xuping, Bahiru and Sven were participating at the "1st Workshop on Mixed Ionic-Electronic Transport - From Fundamentals to Applications" at the Eulenhof in Stuttgart.

The purpose of the workshop was to encourage interdisciplinary cooperations between chemists, physicist, materials scientists and engineers from the University of Heidelberg and the University of Stuttgart. On the schedule have been talks from national as well as internationals researchers and our PhD Xuping Yan represented our group contributing with a talk on the "Highly Selective Binding of Nitrate by [2+3] Amide Cages".

Based on recent studies, her cages will now studied in sensing as well as separation applications to create ground breaking and exciting new materials.

26.10.2022 - ERC Synergy Grant Accepted

We have open positions for Master as well as PhD students in our new TACY project (see below).

Find more information and details in our Vacancies Section or directly here.

If you are interested, contact us at any time via email.

We would be happy to welcome you as members in our team!

26.10.2022 - ERC Synergy Grant Accepted!!

We are happy to announce that our ERC Synergy Grant called "TACY" was accepted for funding by the European Research Council! The Project "Tackling the Cyclacene Challange" will focus on the development of novel methods to synthesize cyclacenes, the smallest segments of zig-zag carbon nanotubes. A class of materials that has been a synthetic goal of scientists for several decades.

Our team will cooperate with the groups of Prof. Dr. Michael Gottfried (University of Marbung) and Prof. Dr. Holger Bettinger (University of Tübingen) and we are looking forward to this amazing journey.

Click here for the press-release from the University of Heidelberg.

We will be TACY!

26.10.2022 - Mastalerz Group at KOPO 22

The 11th edition of the workshop on Conjugated Oligomers and Polymers (KOPO) was taking place at Bad Honnef this year. Four of our PhDs as well as Michael have been there and contributed with talks and Posters.

Dennis Popp, Dan Wang and Yogendra Singh presented posters of their current PhD projects and Simone as well as Michael were giving talks about our monkey saddle story.

They all had great days with a lot of fruitful academic exchange.

26.10.2022 - Farewell to Zishuo

We want to say goodbye to Dr. Zishuo Zhou.

Zishuo joined our group two and a half years ago and worked on organic cage compounds and the development of post-synthetic modification techniques. His persistence for his project helped us to push this topic and we are looking forward to the future opportunities deriving from that.

We want to thank him for sharing his knowledge and experience with our group and wish him a great future back home in China!

17.10.2022 - New (Old) Group Member

We would like to welcome back Dr. Sviatoslav Batsyts.

Sviat will continue his postdoc-studies in our group supported by a research grant for doctoral candidates, postdocs and researchers affected by the war in Ukraine funded by Heidelberg University.

He will work on calixarene based organic cage compounds and we are grateful to Heidelberg University for giving Ukrainian researchers such as Sviat this opportunity in these difficult times.

17.10.2022 - New Group Member

We would like to welcome Joseph Macdonald in our group.

Joe is studying chemistry at the University of York in the United Kingdom and is joining us for his master thesis. During his studies, he will investigate new methodologies to synthesize three-dimensional molecules with potential use in material chemistry.

We wish Joe an awesome time in Mastalerz group.

17.10.2022 - Farewell to Dennis

We want to say goodbye to Dr. Dennis Reinhard.

After his Diploma Thesis in our group, Dennis worked in his PhD on tritpycene based porous materials such as the Supertriptycene and finished his thesis "Von Triptycen-basierten polycyclischen Kohlenwasserstoffen und porösen Metall-assistierten Salphen-organischen Komplexen und Materialien" with great success.

Dennis afterwards did a post-doc in our group greatfully funded by the 3DMM2O cluster and will now move on with his carreer.

We want to thank him for everything he did for our group and wish him all the best for his future!

17.10.2022 - Sven at POPS 2022

After us hosting the 2nd International Symposium on Porous Organic Polymers (POPS) in 2019, POPS 2022 was talking place at the University of Colorado Boulder in the United States of America.

Sven was giving a talk on "Porous Organic Cages and ther Selective Gas Adsorption Bevavior" and enjoyed a beautiful venue close to the Rocky Mountains. The focus of his talk was our recent work on the adsorption on highly potent greenhouse gases using porous organic cages.

25.07.2022 - PhD Defense!

Congrats to Philppe Wagner to the successful defense of his PhD thesis with the title "Chirale Derivate von Tribenzotriquinacen als Bausteine für Iminkäfigverbindungen".

Philippe did an awesome job during his master and PhD studies in our group switching the statistical substitution ratio on synthetically valuable tribenzotriquinacenes toward the desired C3 isomer, developed a highly effective racemic resolution of the obtained TBTQs even in larger scales and applied the corresponding building blocks in studies about the chiral self-sorting of giant cubic cages!

This was an impressive job and the best things are yet to be published...

We wish Philippe the very best in his future career and life and will miss him as colleague and friend.

25.07.2022 - New Group Members

We would like to welcome two new group members.

Dr. Anjana Kunhumbadukka Othayoth will be our scientific guest for the upcoming months. Her background as material scientist and her particular interest in the properties of porous materials will be applied during investigation in-depths investigation of the gas sorption behavior of highly environmental damaging greenhouse gases.

Her work will continue our recent studies we recently published in Adv. Mater.!

Cornelius Daiber started his master thesis in our lab. After a successful bachelor thesis in our group, his master thesis will deal with further studies on our polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with monkey saddle topology which can have a full carbon or nitrogen doped backbone.

We wish Anjana and Cornelius a great time in the Mastalerz group.

10.06.2022 - Paper accepted!

Congrats to Jochen!

His paper on cages binding nitrate highly selective was accepted in Chem. Eur. J.!!

Nitrate can is a pollutant found in groundwater and cause serious health issue up to cancer. A selective removal of nitrate from water is thus of upmost importance. By a systematic modification of the single cage building blocks we found a cage with excellent selectivities of nitrate against chloride and hydrogen carbonate. This was proven by a comprehensive NMR-titration study as well as single crystal X-ray diffraction and we will further work on future applications of this gem of a cage.

If you are interested in the story, you can find a screen-sized gif about it here or by clicking directly on the gif on the left.

Well done Jochen!

01.06.2022 - Paper accepted!

Congrats to Ke!

His paper on the highly selective adsorption of perfluorinated greenhouse gases was accepted for publication in Adv. Mater.!!

While most of the publics attention regarding greenhouse gases is focused on carbon dioxide, the perfluoro carbons we investigated in this study have an influence on the global warming which is up to 11100 times larger than that of a comparable amount of carbon dioxide over 100 years. Furthermore, data by the NASA sponsored Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE) proves rising atmospheric concentrations of these harmful greenhouse gases.  To the best of our knowledge we present the first selective material for such gases.

If you are interessted in the story, you can find a screen-sized gif about it here or by clicking directly on the gif on the left.

Incredible job Ke!

25.05.2022 - Paper accepted!

Congrats to Xuan!

His paper on the synthesis of coronene nanoribbons with precise lenghts was accepted for publication in JACS!!

During this study Xuan developed two routes to nanoribbons with up to four coronene subunits and 17 linearly fused benzenes yielding in lengths up to 4.2 nm. As a fundamental tool, he used triptycene end-capping to obtain soluble polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and studied the optoelectronic properties to evaluate potential applications in organic electronics.

If you are interessted in the story,you can find a screen-sized gif about it here or by clicking directly on the gif on the left.

Awesome job Xuan!

28.04.2022 - Farewell to Xuan

We want to say good bye to Dr. Xuan Yang!

After a really successful PhD thesis and a follow up post-doc in our group we say farewell to Dr.  Xuan Yang! He pushed our research on π -systems to the next level with his everlasting motivation and his tireless dedication to science.

We are happy to announce that Xuan will continue his scientific career as Newton International Fellow in the group of Guillaume De Bo at the University of Manchester, England.

We wish you all the best for your career!!

28.04.2022 - Price awarded to Lucas

Huge congrats to Dr. Lucas Ueberricke!!

Lucas was awarded the price of the Dr. Alexander und Dr. Rosemarie Bauer-Stiftung in 2021 for his excellent PhD thesis!!

After his PhD in our group, he was a post-doc in the group of Prof. Dr. Wakamiya at the Kyoto Universtiy in Kyoto, Japan working on perovskite solar cells and has recently moved to industry.

So again, huge congrats for this price and all the best for your future!!

07.04.2022 - Welcome to our "new" PhDs

Again apologizing for the news delay, we want to welcome our four newest PhDs to the group!!

Dan Wang (left) started on December 1st and will be working on extended non-planar π-systems.

Xuping Yan (right) started on December 1st and will be working on functional cages for sensing applications.

Anika Haidisch (middle, front) started on April 1st and will be working on self-oriented systems.

Christoph Keck (middle, back) started on December 1st and will be working on new methods to synthesize threedimensional extended aromatic systems.

We are really happy to have you in our group and are looking forward doing science together in the next years!!

01.02.2022 - Change in Admin-Team

We want to give a warm welcome to Nicole Rast (left) who joined our admin team!

She will continue the work of Janine Tornow-Gaisbauer (right) who joined the "Prüfungssekretariat" of the Institute of Organic-Chemistry.

We are really  looking forward to work with you Nicole and want to thank Janine for all her help, work and support during the last years!!

21.01.2022- PhD Defense!

We apologize for the news delay but:

Congrats to Fabian "Eugen" Uhrmacher to succesfully defending his PhD thesis with the title "Funktionalisierte Metallsalphene als Bausteine für poröse Materialien und diskrete [2+3]-Käfigverbindungen".

Great job Dr. Uhrmacher and we wish you all the best for your future career teaching the younglings in Berlin!

11.11.2021 - Paper accepted

Congrats to Jochen!

His Paper on a shape-persistent nanobelt was as accepted in Eur. J. Org. Chem.!

Great job Jochen!

28.10.2021 - Paper accepted

Congrats to Fabi!

His Paper on large [2+3] salicylimine cages with embedded metal-salphen units was as accepted in Eur. J. Inorg. Chem.!

Well-Done Fabi!

26.10.2021 - New Group Member!

Welcome to our group Yogendra Singh!

Yogendra obtained his master degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Roorkee, India under the supervision of Prof. K. R. Justin Thomas and has now started his PhD studies in our group.

He will work on the development of new methodologies toward discrete three-dimensional functional materials.

We are looking forward to the next years with you in our team!

13.08.2021 - Paper accepted

Congrats to Xuan!

His Paper on contorted Hetero-annulated Tetraarenocoronenes was as accepted in Chem. Eur. J.!

Well-Done Xuan!

30.07.2021 - PhD Defense!

Congrats to Christine to succesfully defending her PhD thesis with the title "Synthese von vierfach ortho-formylierten Triptycenen und der Verwendung zum Aufbau neuartiger Käfigmöleküle".

Great job Dr. Bourgignon and we wish you all the best for your future career!

27.07.2021 - Paper accepted

Congrats to our former group member Lucas!

His Paper on Cruciform-based QPPS just got accepted in Eur. J. Org. Chem.!

Well-Done Lucas!

16.07.2021 - News

We have a news section now!

Stay tuned to get information about things happening in our group under this topic!