2016

Felix Rechberger and Prof. Markus Niederberger publish a review article on aerogels which is featured on the inside front cover of Nanoscale Horizons and is highlighted in the series 'Under the Covers' by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

The Department of Materials is happy to announce that the Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology has appointed Markus Niederberger, currently Accociate Professor, as Full Professor of Multifunctional Materials.

A team that includes scientists from the Laboratory for Nanometallurgy is the first to use materials with a network-like structure to create a full spectrum of intense colours. The principle has long existed in nature: for example, in the colourful plumage of a particular species of bird in South America.

Prof. Laura Heyderman, Chair of Mesoscopic Systems, would like to use the Swiss Free Electron Laser (SwissFEL) to study ultra-fast processes in magnets on the micrometer and nanometer scale and get to the bottom of phenomena that occur during phase transitions.

The ETH Zurich’s student association (VSETH) has selected Walter R. Caseri, titular professor at the Laboratory for Multifunctional Materials, as a recipient of the “Goldene Eule”.

Researchers from the Complex Materials group have used an additive manufacturing process to print an extremely porous ceramic component. Manufacturing a material of this kind with a 3D printer is a considerable achievement.

Prof. Nicola Spaldin, Chair of Materials Theory, has been selected as the 2017 L’Oréal-UNESCO “For Women in Science” Laureate for Europe. This award recognizes her groundbreaking multidisciplinary work predicting, describing and creating new materials that have switchable magnetic and ferroelectric properties.

During the recent Biomaterials 2016 conference at ETH, Joanna Aizenberg, Dave Mooney and Simon Hoerstrup were interviewed about their views on biointerface research, translation and other important issues. These interviews are available now.

Jörg F. Löffler has been awarded the DGM "Breakthrough" Prize 2016 of the German Society of Materials. This award is "bestowed on an excellent scientist in the middle of his/her research career for outstanding scientific achievements which represent a breakthrough in materials science and/or for initiating a new research field".

Topological effects by cyclic polymers are enhanced in the confinement of a flat surface: a research team led by Dr. Edmondo M. Benetti have demonstrated that cyclic polyoxazoline brushes provide higher steric stabilization with respect to their linear analogues, and display super-lubricious behavior in water.

The inaugural lecture of Prof. Eric Dufresne is now available online.

Prof. Jan Vermant was awarded the 2016 Onsager Professorship at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and received the Onsager medal on September 26 th in Trondheim. Prof Vermant was also elected as a fellow of the Society of Rheology (US), class of 2016.

Dorota Koziej, group leader in the Laboratory for Multifunctional Materials, accepted a professorship in experimental physics with a focus on hybrid nanomaterials at University of Hamburg, Germany. In August 2017, her group will move to the new Center for Hybrid Nanostructures (CHyN), which is part of the Institute of Nanostructure- and Solid State Physics (INF) of the University of Hamburg (UHH).

Authors present a rationally designed nanoparticle (NP) formulation that mimics a liposome outer bilayer but can help achieve a uniform size through a bottom up synthetic approach afforded by an inorganic NP scaffold at its core.

Antiferromagnetism is magnetic order, yet without a macroscopic magnetization as in iron. The absence of the field has interesting technological potential, but it also makes the antiferromagnetic state harder to control and set in a certain direction. Light, however, can do this if antiferromagnets from a special class of materials called multiferroics are selected.

Researchers at the Eectrochemical Group of Prof. Jennifer Rupp have developed a lithium-ion battery made entirely of solid material: it contains neither liquids nor gels. The battery cannot ignite, even at very high temperatures, giving it a safety advantage over conventional batteries. In addition, they allow new forms of battery design.

Materials researchers from the Battery Materials group at the Swiss Paul Scherrer Institute PSI in Villigen and the Complex Material group at the ETH Zurich have developed a very simple and cost-effective procedure for significantly enhancing the performance of conventional Li-ion rechargeable batteries.

The Department is proud to announce that Can Onur Avci (Magnetism and Interface Physics), Max Jonathan Kory (Polymer Chemistry), Marco Schweizer (Polymer Physics) and Stef Smeets (Crystallography) will be awarded the ETH Medal 2016 for their outstanding doctoral theses.

PhD Rafael Schmitt received the European Materials Research Society Young Scientist Award at the 2016 EMRS for his fundamental work entitled "Direct Evidence of Oxygen Vacancies Role for Resistive Switching in Ceria-based Oxides to Modulate Information Bits".

Jan Van den Broek was awarded with the 2nd Prize of the "Zuger Wissenschaftspreis" for his thesis "All Solid State Li-Ion Batteries Based on Garnet-type Fast Li-ion Conductors".