Polymer design at nanoscale Biologically-inspired polymers

Research at the Laboratory of Polymer (LP) focuses on the development of novel advanced polymeric materials with potential applications in optics, electronics or medicine. The philosophy is that precise control over nanoscale structure is an important prerequisite to tailor polymer properties. To this end, a “bottom-up” approach is followed, which starts with designing a new material at the molecular level, in order to be able to predict and control its nanoscale organization. For synthesis, a broad range of methods, including both controlled / “living” polymerization methodologies as well as automated parallel synthesis are used. Finally, the nanoscale structure of the new materials is investigated, using, for example, scattering techniques or microscopy methods and correlated to macroscopic materials properties. This ""structure - property relationships"" approach should ultimately allow a priori design of new materials with predictable nanoscale structure and macroscopic properties.The main topics of research are biologically-inspired polymers, biofunctional surfaces and precision polymerization.