New materials

18. January 2024

Rudolphina Experts: Drinking water supply

Clean and reliable water: Looking to the sky for answers

Airborne treasure: The atmosphere is an often overlooked reservoir of fresh water. Materials chemist Robert Woodward and his team developed a novel approach to tap into this precious resource in even the driest locations on Earth.

11. January 2024

Guest article by

Sofia Kantorovich

Rudolphina Experts: New materials in medicine

Nanomagnets to fight cancer

Most drugs work best when directly brought to the place in the body where they are needed. Physicist Sofia Kantorovich explains how nanoscale magnets could lead to better therapies for conditions such as cancer.

13. December 2023

Solar energy revolution

Excited by light

Mimicking 'plant power' through artificial photosynthesis: an approach that could drive the solar energy revolution. Researchers at the University of Vienna are in a bid to chase this dream by trying to capture the sun's energy and storing it in chemical compounds. A report on how this works and why computer simulations are indispensable in the process.

11. December 2023

Panel Discussion on 15 January

What is our future made of?

The highlight and closing event of the semester question was a panel discussion with renowned panellists at the Main Ceremonial Hall of the University of Vienna: Ranging from materials science to design and urban research. Materials researcher and NYT bestselling author Mark Miodownik from UCL gave the keynote speech.

22. November 2023

Presenting… Physicist Sabri Koraltan

Tiny tornados for storing data

Have you ever wondered how your car knows how fast its wheels are turning? Or how your smart watch still saves all your data even when out of battery? This is where magnetic materials come into play, materials researched and developed by the physicist Sabri Koraltan at the University of Vienna.

14. November 2023

Materials for the energy transition

Supercomputer, Schrödinger and the energy revolution

How can we sustainably scale up the production of hydrogen and synthetic fuels for the post-fossil energy world? Advances in materials science could hold the key. Physicist Georg Kresse and his team use computer simulations to enable the necessary breakthroughs.

7. November 2023

Guest article by

Jia Min Chin

Rudolphina Experts: Materials inspired by nature

Where nature shows science new ways

When looking for inspiration for the development of new materials, it is worth taking a look at nature. In her guest article, materials chemist Jia Min Chin reveals the tricks that flora and fauna have in store for the materials of the future.

31. October 2023

Presenting… Zoologist Sophie Greistorfer

Glowing snail mucus: The sticky future of biomaterials

A sticky thing: A small freshwater snail in New Zealand has a very special way of defending itself. It confuses its attackers with glowing green slime. "This mucus is one of the most promising biomaterials," says Sophie Greistorfer. In her PhD project, she is looking for the key to grasping the fundamental principles of this luminescent biopolymer.

23. October 2023

Materials of the future

Stable, inexpensive and exotic: 2D crystals in a graphene sandwich

Scientists from the University of Vienna present exciting "materials of the future": Physicist Kimmo Mustonen starts by explaining how to grow crystals between sheets of graphene and what makes this "sandwich" so special.

19. October 2023

Electrochromic materials

A chemical signature of authenticity

A new smart ink based on electrochromic materials could not only prevent the forgery of event tickets, but also facilitate the monitoring of sensitive products and resources such as blood reserves. The applications for this innovative material are almost endless, says one of the developers, chemist Laura Maggini.

11. October 2023

New Materials

What the future is made of

New materials are considered very promising for solving the acute challenges of our time, but they also create new problems. We take a closer look at those materials that have shaped us and those that are yet to come.

25. September 2023

Guest article by

Thilo Hofmann

Rudolphina Experts: Sustainable Agriculture

Can we feed the world population of 2050 without plastic in agriculture?

In this article, environmental geoscientist Thilo Hofmann from the Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science explores the role of plastic in modern agriculture and its potential ramifications on our planet.