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Welcome to the Pages of SFB 677!
We investigate molecular machines in the field of nanosciences. Chemistry, physics, materials sciences, zoology and medical sciences collaborate using an interdisciplinary approach. On these pages we provide scientists, corporations, media, teachers and students with information on our research as well as our progress.
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About SFB 677 "Function by Switching"
Facts
- number of active projects: 18
- number of principal investigators: 26
- number of scientists: about 100 (students, postdocs, P.I.s)
- 1. funding period: 07/2007 - 06/2011
- 2. funding period: 07/2011 - 06/2015
- budget: 8 mio. EUR (2. funding period)
Research Program
Virtually all technical engineering functions that are realized in our macroscopic world have been implemented on a molecular scale by nature. Molecuar pumps transport substances through cell membranes, motors fueled by ATP drive molecular vehicles along polymer tracks. Repair enzymes constantly control our genetic information, automatically uncovering and mending defects.
A switching process triggered by external signals is the common basis for all aforementioned molecular or macroscopic functions and applications. Switching is not only the basic principle of digital data processing, it also serves as a fundamental step in the operation of motors, actuators, sensors and machinery of any kind.
The Collaborative Research Center (SFB) "Function by Switching" aims at the implementation of essential and elementary functions using artificial (abiotic) systems on a molecular basis. In the same way as in information processing, the inherent miniaturization of technical processes to a molecular scale will result in a considerable increase in efficiency and performance as well as the development of new applications.
To achieve a function by a switching process, molecular switches have to be incorporated in a well-defined environment. The nature of this environment and its interaction with the switch subdivides this project into three project areas.
SFB 677 Contact Information
Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 677 - Function by Switching
Chairman: Prof. Dr. Rainer Herges (Org. Chemistry)
Deputy Chairman: Prof. Dr. Olaf Magnussen (Physics)
Deputy Chairman: Prof. Dr. Richard Berndt (Physics)
Deputy Chairman: Prof. Dr. Felix Tuczek (Inorg. Chemistry)
Secretary: Wiebke Wagner
Otto-Diels-Institut für Organische Chemie
Otto-Hahn-Platz 3
24118 Kiel
phone: +49 (0)431 880-4617
fax: +49 (0)431 880-2646
e-mail: wwagner@oc.uni-kiel.de
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Imprint
This web site was created on behalf of:
Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 677 - Function by Switching
at the Christiana Albertina University of Kiel
Chairman: Prof. Dr. Rainer Herges
Otto Diels Institute for Organic Chemistry
Otto-Hahn-Platz 4
24118 Kiel
e-mail: rherges@.uni-kiel.de
phone: +49 (0)431 880-2440
fax: +49 (0)431 880-1558
Web-Design:
Dr. Torsten Winkler
Otto Diels Institute for Organic Chemistry
Otto-Hahn-Platz 4
24118 Kiel
e-mail: twinkler@oc.uni-kiel.de
phone: +49 (0)431 880-1928
fax: +49 (0)431 880-1558
V.i.S.d.P.:
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
Präsidium
Olshausenstr. 40
24118 Kiel
Disclaimer:
No liability is taken for the content of external websites.
News from SFB 677
April 2013
New SFB English language training course
In this year, the graduate school of the SFB 677 organised another English class led by Gary Owston (Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, UK), in collaboration with the SFB 877.
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The participants can improve their pronunciation, communication skills or presentation skills according to their interest with many practical exercises and role-plays. To achieve an improved learning success, in this year the course is being held as a series of four individual courses spread out over the year with the next course dates being the 13th and 14th of June 2013.
February 2013
Second podcast online: "Joining the unjoinable"
In the SFB's second research podcast, scientists from the workgroups of Prof. Adelung and Prof. Staubitz present their collaborative project "joining the unjoinable".
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Various natural plants contain surfaces which do not stick to anything, e.g. nasturtium. Water just rolls off, removing dirt particles in the process. This phenomenon is widely known as the lotus effect. Some artificial materials such as teflon behave similarly. They ensure that nothing sticks to your frying pan. Scientists in SFB 677 tried to join two such materials (teflon and silicone), which normally resist sticking together. The scientists developed a kind of paper clip, so-called tetrapodes. Due to their unique shape, these zinc tetrapodes can penetrate both materials, making them stick together without glue. This new discovery could be applied in the future to make paint stick to silicone joints or to develop improved medical devices.
January 2013
Spektrum neo: Rainer Herges reports on "bending molecules"
In the current issue of Spektrum neo, Spektrum's series aimed at children and young adults, Prof. Herges reports on "bending molecules" and their proposed applications. Switchable surfaces which can change properties at the push of a button, i.e. become waterproof, have yet to make their way into everyday life. While we might still have to wait for automaticallly adapting clothing to protect us from rain and snow, other tailored appliances are already available.
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supporting information:
exercises to embed Spektrum neo into science education at school
online experiment: in pursuit of the lotus effect
Photo © Anna Thielisch
October 2012
CRC student lab klick! is part of Kiel’s new Young Scientists’s Workshop
A lab made for school-aged students has been conceptionalised since mid 2011 within CRC 677. The lab called klick! has now become part of the city of Kiel’s new Young Scientists’s Workshop which was presented to the public and media in October.
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The klick!:lab is meant for school-aged children of all grades and offers opportunities for fascinating experiments and insight into the real life of chemists, physicists, biologists and material scientists. The lab thus offers CRC 677 scientists the opportunity to inform students and teachers about both research results as well as the process of doing science. The klick!:lab is managed by Stefan Schwarzer of Leibniz-Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN). Its concept was designed within the subproject Public Relations (TPÖ) by Ilka Parchmann of IPN.
The experiments offered by the klick!:lab involve measurements of soap bubble thickness, demonstrations of photo-, thermo- and electrochromic switches, contact angle measurements and atomic force microscopy. All experiments are developed jointly by scientists and teachers. The klick! team will integrate new ideas for experiments from CRC 677.
The Kiel Young Scientists’s Workshop can be found in the Botanical Garden of Kiel University. Starting after the fall break, the first groups of students are scheduled for unconventional supervised experimenting and learning. The Scientists’ Workshop will also contribute to the training of teachers and university students from teaching degree programmes. Several other topics are present in the workshop’s think:lab, ocean:lab and energy:lab. Groups and individuals can register for the workshop at the new workshop website.
October 2012
Publication: Joining the unjoinable
Researchers of CRC 677 have succeeded in joining together two supremely unjoinable polymers — Teflon and cross-linked poly(dimethylsiloxane), the slippery coating used as backing paper for stickers. The work published in Advanced Materials was selected as a Nature Research Highlight and received considerable attention in the media.
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Three CRC 677 research groups combined their expertise in material science (R. Adelung) , chemistry (A. Staubitz) and biomechanics (S. Gorb) for this result of subproject C10. The approach will be used to connect switchable with unswitchable polymers.
September 2012
Dr. Vladimir Zaporojtchenko (1946 - 2012)
With great sadness we mourn the passing of our friend and colleague Dr. Vladimir Zaporojtchenko who passed away on August 31.
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Dr. Zaporojtchenko was one of the principal investigators of subproject C01 "Photoswitchable Metal Polymer Nanocomposites" from 2007 to 2011.
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September 2012
Beilstein-TV Reports on "Sweet Switches"
A new podcast from Beilstein TV reports on the research on cell adhesion from the workgroup of Prof. Dr. R. Lindhorst.
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This video provides an overview of our work on the investigation of carbohydrate-specific bacterial adhesion. We utilize functional glycomimetics and specific glycoarrays that may be fabricated from photoswitchable glycosides.
August 2012
Beilstein-TV Reports on Molecular Switches from SFB 677
A new podcast from Beilstein TV reports on the design, synthesis and characterization of new molecular switches from the workgroup of Prof. Dr. R. Herges.
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The new switches are based on the diazocine switching unit, which itself is an improved azobenzene. Upon irradiation, the substances not only undergo a color change, but the less flexible molecular structure enables their application as a molecular synthetic machine.
The Beilstein TV movie gives an insight into the process leading from an idea and computer-based development to an optimized synthesis yielding new molecular switches.
August 2012
International SFB Meeting at Plön Castle
On August 20-22, 2012, SFB 677 presents the second international meeting titled "Molecular Switches: Elementary Processes and Applications". This year's conference will be held at Fielmann Academy at Plön Castle.
click here to see the scientific program
August 2012
Second English Language Training for SFB677 Students
Exciting science needs to be presented in an understandable and accessible way to achieve maximum impact. Therefore, in August, the second workshop „Communicating and Presenting in English“ for Ph. D. students of the SFB graduate school took place.
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The participants of the course were taught correct English pronunciation and how to systematically practise and improve their skills. A further focus was on improving their individual presentational skills including the efficient use of rhetoric devices. The SFB 677 was very fortunate to be able to engage Gary Owston as course leader. Gary is a specialist for voice and speech and has taught at the most prestigious drama schools in London and is now working at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, England. This work is continued on a weekly basis by Anne Staubitz and we hope to make this course a regular offer for the graduate school.
July 2012
Proof published: information can be stored with individual molecules
Physicists and chemists published their joint results in the journal "Angewandte Chemie".
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Using individual molecules instead of electronic or magnetic memory cells would revolutionise data storage technology, as molecular memories could be thousand-fold smaller. Scientists of CRC 677 took a big step towards developing such molecular data storage. Physicist Thiruvancheril Gopakumar with support of his colleagues of the research groups “Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy” led by Richard Berndt and “Anorganic Molecular Chemistry” led by Felix Tuczek succeeded in selectively switching on and off the magnetism of individual molecules, so-called spin-crossover complexes, by electrons. The interdisciplinary study proves that it is technically possible to store information using molecules.It was published in the German scientific journal “Angewandte Chemie” (Applied Chemistry).
- Link to publication.
- Link to press release.
July 2012
Video Clip Receives Award at Nanospots Film Festival
According to the jury, this film is “catchy with respect to both humour and didactics”. The video clip “Vijay and the switches” was awarded the third prize in the first nanospots film festival in Halle, Germany.
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Experts from nano science, politics, economy, media and society selected the movie for presentation in the Central German Multimedia Center in Halle as part of the "Long night of science". The audience judged all ten movies presented. The video clip was prepared jointly by a team of scientists led by S. Schwarzer (IPN) for the didactic part and T. K. Lindhorst (Otto Diels Institute for Organic Chemistry), for the scientific content together with the Kiel based film production Weitwinkelproduktion. The clip picks up the CRC 677 research topic of project B11 "Switchable cell adhesion".
July 2012
First Podcast online: “Glycocalyx – an undiscovered organelle”
Switchable cell adhesion is one of the research topics of the research group of Thisbe Lindhorst. The group presents their work in the first CRC 677 science podcast.
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The research deals with molecular switches that can prevent bacteria from docking on to other cells. "Such nano-switches can be useful for the diagnosis and treatment of bacteria such as EHEC", says T. K. Lindhorst. Podcasts are supposed to help promote the discussion between science and society about the topic of nano technology within CRC 677. The podcast is the extended, scientifically more detailed version of video clip "Vijay and the switches" which recently received an award at the first nanospots film festival.
July 2012
Poster Award for Physicist Nadine Hauptmann
A poster prize has been awarded to Nadine Hauptmann at the 15th International Conference on non-contact Atomic Force Microscopy 2012 in Cesky Krumlov (Czech Republic). The prize was sponsored by the company Specs for an excellent poster presentation and outstanding research topic.
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The conference was devoted to the latest progress in dynamical atomic force microscopy and brought together 200 scientists from all around the world. Nadine is currently working on her Ph.D. in Prof. Berndt's group. Within her Ph.D. project she investigates molecular switches using combined STM and AFM m easurements. Her topic is a key subject in the SFB 677 "Function by switching". In particular, her work focuses on the acting forces when contacting the molecules with a metal electrode.
June 2012
Nanoworlds in Your Pocket
The nanoscale world becomes visible for everyone by "Nanotörn", a new application for smartphones developed by the Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN) at Kiel in collaboration with Groningen University.
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The app takes the users on a journey into small dimensions and shows the research interests of the scientists in the collaborative research center 677 "Function by Switching" at Kiel University as well as the relevance of "nano" for everyday life. The app can scan AR codes (which are available as a booklet in our downloads section. The smartphone's camera serves as a kind of microscope, making the invisible visible. For more information please see the CAU press release.
June 2012
International SFB Meeting at Plön Castle
On August 20-22, 2012, SFB 677 presents the second international meeting titled "Molecular Switches: Elementary Processes and Applications". This year's conference will be held at Fielmann Academy at Plön Castle.
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This year's event will be attended by various renowned international speakers. The topics of the conference include: solid state and materials, supramolecular chemistry, STM / local manipulation, molecular architectures, ultrafast dynamics, photochemistry and theory, spin switching. The registration is now available.
May 2012
SFB 677 at Nano-Spots Short Film Festival
The nano short film festival nano-spots called for contributions this year following the motto "Innovative, scientific and creative".
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The public outreach project of SFB 677 (TPÖ) together with the working group of Thisbe Lindhorst produced the film "Vijay and the switches", which now qualified for the finals of the festival, which will be held in Halle on July 7th. The short film is thus among the top ten contributions to the festival, which will compete for awards that add up to 10.000 €. The film will be shown on this website soon.
April 2012
Science Simulation Game
Teachers from Schleswig-Holstein were given the opportunity to try their hands at the first experiments from the Student Lab "Klick" and validate the setup for their own classes.
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Scientific tasks, processes and findings from the SFB 677 and other projects are translated into comprehensive and interesting experiments and simulations in the new student lab "Klick". Further information on the event can be found in the CAU press release (in German).
March 2012
SFB 677 for Future Students
The collaborative research center 677 presented an information booth as well as hands-on experiments at the study course information days of the Christina-Albertina University of Kiel on March 20-22, 2012.
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Students gained an insight into current research topics in our SFB. A "nano quiz" from Ilka Parchmann's group at the Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education was particularly well received.
March 2012
Concept Presentation of the SFB's Student Lab "Klick!"
The concept of the new student lab "Klick" of the collaborative research center 677 was presented at the 7th annual convention of the federal association of student labs (LernortLabor e.V.).
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Besides the pending central technical questions (What does nano-science mean? What are the principles of chemical as well as physical switching? Which methods and processes are suitable for characterization?), educational objectives were emphasized (enhancement of basic academic concepts, combination of experiment and multimedia, insight into scientists' everyday research).
February 2012
New Publication on „Spin Switching in Transition Metal Complexes“
The workgroups of Rainer Herges and Felix Tuczek report on light-induced spin switching of iron complexes in the European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry.
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The paper is titled "FeIII Spin-Crossover Complexes with Photoisomerizable Ligands: Experimental and Theoretical Studies on the Ligand-Driven Light-Induced Spin Change Effect".
January 2012
Musher Award for Rainer Herges
In January 2012, the Musher Memorial Lecture Committee bestowed the Musher Award 2012 on Rainer Herges for his outstanding achievements in chemistry and nanosciences.
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Invited by the Musher Memorial Lecture Committee, Herges will give lectures at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and other universities in Israel in May 2012. The Musher Award is handed out anually to commemorate the late Jewish chemist Jeremy Musher. The accolade is given only to exceptional researchers. Among the awardees are Nobel laureates Roald Hoffmann and George Olah. For more information see the CAU press release (in German).
January 2012
Boosting the Communication of Kiel's Nano SFBs
In January 2012, Stefanie Maack started her work as a contact for press and public relations for the SFB 677.
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Stefanie Maack is the new consultant for science communication at the CAU's center for press and communication services. Her work is focused on the collaborative research centers (SFB) 677, 855 and 877. She will support the SFBs mainly by composing press releases (e.g. in the process of important publications), advising SFB members on project communication (target audiences, information channels, language) as well as providing access to media. All SFB members are invited to contact Ms. Maack (smaack@uv.uni-kiel.de, -1755). For more information see CAU-intern (only CAU intranet).
May 2011
Second Funding Period Granted
On May 24, 2011, the DFG has granted the extension of SFB 677 for four additional years. See the CAU press release. (page in German)
