Symposium Sessions

Please contact the symposium organizers with questions.

Nano- and microgels are cross-linked molecular networks swollen by the solvent, in which they are dissolved. Their dimensions range from several hundreds of nanometers to several micrometers. The unique property of the nano- and microgels is their ability to dramatically change shape and volume in response to external stimuli such as temperature, pressure and ionic strength. For a nano- or microgel with a complex shape placed in the gradient of a stimulus field, the volume change is coupled to complex deformation patterns and provides the opportunity to reversibly tune the physical and chemical properties of the nano- or microscalar gel.
Due to the microscopic length scale intrinsic to nano- and microgels, these changes are taking place at the sub-microsecond time scale making them distinct from macroscopic hydrogels. Nano- and microgels provide a combination of structural integrity, high molecular porosity and soft deformability that sets them apart distinctly from other commonplace colloids. These features offer unique combinations of architectural diversity in nano- and microgels enabling integration and compartmentalization of otherwise incompatible chemical functionalities. From a physics point of view, nano- and microgels are particularly intriguing and challenging, since their molecular properties are intimately linked with their surface behavior and inter-colloidal interactions. Their unique properties render nano- and microgels relevant in applications as mediating materials for catalysis, as sensors, as building blocks in micro-robotics and for separation process technology.
This symposium will broadly cover current and emerging questions related to the physical, chemical and material properties of nano- and microgels. The symposium seeks to provide a general overview of recent advances in new design concepts, modelling tools, fabrication techniques and promising applications enabled by these new developments.

Topics will include:

• Novel nano- and microgel architectures
• Fabrication of nano- and microgels
• Physical and chemical properties
• Characterisation techniques
• Theoretical and numerical models
• Applications of nano- and microgels

Invited Speakers:

• Cecile Monteux (ESPCI, France)
• Esther Amstad (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland)
• Anna C. Balazs (University of Pittsburgh, USA)
• Michel Cloitre (Ecole Superieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles, France)
• Nicholas X. Fang (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
• Shi Feng (Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China)
• Mark Grinstaff (Boston University, USA)
• Yu Hoshino (Kyushu University, Japan)
• Shin-Hyun Kim (Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea)
• Thomas Kodger (Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands)
• Eugenia Kumacheva (University of Toronto, Canada)
• Christos N. Likos (University of Vienna, Austria)
• Martin Möller (DWI - Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials, Germany)
• To Ngai (Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
• Igor Potemkin (Moscow State University, Russian Federation)
• Walter Richtering (RWTH Aachen University, Germany)
• Brian Saunders (University of Manchester, United Kingdom)
• Orlin D. Velev (North Carolina State University, USA)
• Dimitris Vlassopoulos (FORTH Crete, Greece)
• Regine von Klitzing (Technischen Universitaet Darmstadt, Germany)
• Andreas Walther (Freiburg University, Germany)
• Roland G. Winkler (Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany)

Symposium Organizers