Press releases

The INM – Leibniz Institute for New Materials says goodbye to its scientific director and chairman Prof. Eduard Arzt who retired at the end of 2022. Arzt headed the Saarbrücken-based materials research institute since October 2007 and led it to worldwide recognition. He is known nationally and internationally for his research on gecko-inspired polymer surfaces, […]

At 9:25 a.m. on Oct. 21, 2022, the German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) MAPHEUS-12 research rocket lifted off from Sweden’s ESRANGE rocket base near Kiruna. It reached an altitude of 260 kilometers and then sailed back to Earth on a parachute. On board were gold nanoparticles from the INM – Leibniz Institute for New Materials in Saarbrücken. In a special experimental setup, they were used to study how particles agglomerate when no gravity acts on them.

Does glue work in space? More generally, do the properties of materials change when they form from liquid precursors in zero gravity? Researchers at INM – Leibniz Institute for New Materials in Saarbrücken have studied how the agglomeration of nanoparticles changes in the absence of gravity and published surprising differences in the journal Small.

Researchers at INM – Leibniz Institute for New Materials in Saarbrücken, Germany, in collaboration with scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai, have developed a new electrochemical process for extracting lithium ions from seawater. In ACS Energy Letters, the German-Chinese team led by Prof. Volker Presser presents the process, which on the one hand, requires little energy input and, on the other hand, ensures continuous separation of lithium.

In many processes in nature and industry, small objects form ordered layers in liquids on solid surfaces. Standard models describe the objects as spheres with homogeneous surfaces, but many particles have flattened sides – for example, if they are made of metal. Scientists at the INM – Leibniz Institute for New Materials in Saarbrücken and the University of Sydney have recently shown that such polyhedral particles form completely different structures than spherical particles. The properties of the resulting materials, and potentially their recyclability, are also distinct. The results of the research cooperation have now been published in the renowned journal Advanced Materials.

Eduard Arzt, Professor of New Materials at Saarland University and Scientific Director of the INM – Leibniz Institute for New Materials, was awarded the highest distinction of the TMS – The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society on the occasion of a research visit to the USA. At the invitation of the University of California in San Diego, he gave the Stanford S. and Beverly P. Penner Distinguished Lecture.

Superkondensatoren und Batterien sind Energiespeichertypen mit unterschiedlichen Vorteilen. Während Batterien mit hohen Speicherkapazitäten punkten, überzeugt bei den Superkondensatoren die kurze Ladezeit. Gibt es Schnittmengen bei den zugrundeliegenden Technologien? Lassen sich die Vorteile aus beiden Welten verbinden? Damit beschäftigt sich das Autorenteam um Prof. Volker Presser vom Saarbrücker Leibniz-Institut für Neue Materialien (INM) und Dr. Simon Fleischmann, Helmholtz-Institut Ulm (HIU), in ihrem Perspektivartikel im renommierten Wissenschaftsjournal Nature Energy.

The idea of sustainability has now found its way into developing and producing innovative products. Innovation no longer only means faster, better, cheaper, but also cleaner, more energy-efficient, and more environmentally friendly, right through to enabling more efficient recycling. In the EU-funded ReIn-E project,…

Advanced materials exhibit complex and changing properties over their life cycle – a new research alliance of the Leibniz Association, led by INM – Leibniz Institute for New Materials in Saarbrücken and the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden e.V., will investigate the effects of such materials on the environment and humans and develop concepts […]

Heiko Rieger from Saarland University is the seventh Fellow of the INM – Leibniz Institute for New Materials. The professor of theoretical physics will complement the biologically oriented work of the institute with theoretical aspects.

Results of collaboration of INM’s program divisions Dynamic Biomaterials and Interactive Surfaces with international partners on “Optoregulated force application to cellular receptors using molecular motors” published in Nature communications.