Division Leader: Athanassia Athanassiou

The division focuses the research activities on the development, fabrication, and characterization of solid composite materials that are realized by the appropriate combination of two or more components. The resulting composites possess properties that cannot be obtained by any single material, and usually they combine the best characteristics of each of the component materials. A large number of the applications that we target involves properties of the composite materials that additionally can be altered in a reversible and fully controlled manner, by using external stimuli, such as light.
The primary component of most of the composites that we develop is a polymer matrix. In such a matrix are embedded either inorganic nanoparticles, resulting into the nanocomposite materials, with enhanced bulk properties (optical, electrical, mechanical, thermal, etc.), or organic/biological molecules and nanoparticles responsive to external stimuli, resulting into solid ‘smart’ responsive materials. The polymers are transparent, light-weight materials that exhibit resistance to corrosion and can be easily processable and manipulated. Therefore, their merging with semiconductor or metallic nanoparticles that exhibit unique optical, electronic, or magnetic properties, or with ‘smart’ responsive molecules, aims to the development of novel bulk materials, and as a next step, of devices with enhanced characteristics.
Our division dedicates a large part of its research to investigate, control, and modify the surface properties of solid substrates. For this purpose the surface chemistry and geometry of the composite materials are carefully tailored to achieve the desirable surface behavior (e.g. hydro- or oleo- philicity/phobicity). Furthermore, the surface characteristics of different solid substrates (mainly polymers but also other materials are used) are modified and improved by numerous techniques, such as coatings of nanorods, selective surface patterning with nanoparticles or other molecules, etc. The composite materials, the coatings, or the patterned areas in some cases can change their wetting behavior upon external stimulus in a reversible manner, resulting into surfaces with controllably reversible properties.

Schemes of indicative research lines followed by the division

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