Heiner Friedrich

The research of Heiner Friedrich focusses on the fundamental aspects of chemical and physical processes relevant to the hierarchical structuring of materials. The aim hereby is to improve functional performance by morphology optimization and to provide sustainable solutions based on abundant or renewable resources. Of special interest are functional networks made from primary building blocks and achieving local control over network formation and resulting multiscale topology. Materials examples include porous silica/silicate with tunable mass-transport properties for separation and catalysis applications; and graphene composites with tunable energy-transport properties for printed electronics and heat transport/storage applications. To create such functional networks with truly hierarchical morphologies we combine bottom-up self-organization and top-down (additive) manufacturing approaches. To gain insight into morphology evolution during formation, operation, degradation and, prospectively, recycling of the material we utilize quantitative microscopy (QM). To advance QM we also develop (big data) cryo & in-situ electron microscopy approaches for the dynamic investigation of materials over multiple length and time scales.

Matter does not matter, morphology is everything.