We are always looking for enthusiastic scientists capable of working in an interdisciplinary team. If you are interested in creating materials by simple self-assembly processes, pattern surfaces with high precision without relying on sophisticated equipment or simply enjoy watching colloids on their quest to find an energetic minimum position get in touch.
Thesis offers
To apply for a bachelor- and master thesis or a miniproject, please contact the responsible person via email and provide a CV and an up-to-date transcript of records.
Scale-Up of Monodisperse, Single Core Double Emulsions via 2-step and 1-step membrane emulsification
Bachelor’s or Miniproject
Supervisor: Lukas Römling
Emulsions are systems that we encounter every day, from the milk we have with our coffee, the butter on your bread to the sunscreens and lotions that protect and moisture our skin.
Technologically, emulsions are of high importance also in the fields of material sciences, pharmaceutics or in the food industry. In these fields, the size distribution of the droplets plays a major role. Monodisperse droplets significantly enhance the predictability of emulsion systems, increasing their stability, making rheological properties easily adjustable or enhancing the precise delivery of active ingredients in drug delivery.
Monodisperse emulsions can be produced by using microfluidics, however the throughput of these systems is extremely low. High throughput techniques, such as spray drying work wonderfully on a large scale but have a highly polydisperse droplet size distribution. Alternatively, we are using membrane emulsification in a simple setup, which produces near monodisperse emulsions on a larger scale than microfluidics. In our lab, we use these monodisperse droplets to template the self-assembly of primary particles into defined structures called supraparticles. (Figure 1)
Double emulsions (W/O/W or O/W/O) bring the additional benefit of having 2 inner phases doubling their potential applications, but making their production much more tedious. As simple 2-step batch process has been established before but results in low throughput.
In this project, we will use the membrane emulsification technique in a two-step process to make single core double emulsions and evaluate the performance compared to microfluidics and other established emulsification methods. Additionally, the goal is to establish a 1-step setup for making monodisperse SCDE, by using 3D printed membrane setups and optimizing the parameters for continuous operation.
The language of the thesis will be English, however training you can receive in German or English.
Time Scope: 3-4 months including the time to write the thesis.
Starting date: As soon as possible, no later than the middle of August
Synthesis and Characterization of Silica-Polymer Core-Shell Particles
Miniproject
Supervisor: Ruiguang Cui
Studying particles at two-dimensional (2D) interfaces is of fundamental scientific interest and has practical implications in fields such as optical materials, lithography, and biosensing. Among various colloidal systems, hybrid core-shell particles—comprising a hard inorganic core and a soft polymer shell—offer unique physical properties that lie between those of fully rigid or fully soft particles. These core-shell systems exhibit spontaneous adsorption to interfaces and can be tailored to assemble into ordered structures through their polymer shells, particularly when using stimuli-responsive polymers (e.g., pH- or temperature-sensitive systems).
In this mini-project, we aim to synthesize silica-polymer core-shell particles and study how synthetic conditions influence their structure. The core silica particles are prepared using the well-established Stöber method, while polymer shells are grown via UV-light-induced controlled polymerization (specifically RAFT polymerization, i.e., Reversible Addition–Fragmentation Chain Transfer Polymerization).
Project Goals
- Investigate how reaction parameters (e.g., UV exposure time, monomer concentration, block copolymer formation) affect particle size, polymer chain length, and shell structure
- Characterize the resulting core-shell particles through techniques such as FTIR, NMR, GPC, TGA, DLS, SEM, and TEM
- Quantify key parameters such as polymer molecular weight, chain length, and grafting density
What You Will Gain
- Hands-on experience with oxygen- and moisture-free synthesis using Schlenk techniques
- Training in controlled radical polymerization (RAFT polymerization)
- Insights into grafting polymers from solid surfaces
- Familiarity with key analytical instruments: FTIR, NMR, GPC, TGA, DLS, SEM, TEM
- A deeper understanding of polymer chemistry
- Guidance on data analysis and scientific presentation skills
Who Are We Looking For?
- A highly motivated and diligent master’s student
- With solid basic skills in chemical synthesis
- Background in chemistry, preferably with some knowledge of polymer chemistry
If you’re interested in contributing to cutting-edge materials research and developing a broad set of experimental skills, please directly contact Ruiguang Cui (ruiguang.cui@fau.de).
References:
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2021, 118 (52). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2113394118.
ACS Omega 2017, 2 (7), 3399-3405. DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.7b00367
Starting time: Available now
