Selected Publications
- Heuser, T.; Weyandt, E.; Walther, A. “Biocatalytic Feedback-Driven Temporal Programming of Self-Regulating Non-Equilibrium Peptide Hydrogels” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed, 54, 13258 (2015)
- Das, P.; Malho, J.-M.; Koshrow, R.; Schacher, F.; Wang, B.; Walther, A.: “Nacre-Mimetics with Synthetic Nanoclays up to Ultrahigh Aspect Ratio” Nat. Commun. 6, 5967(2015).
- Torres-Rendon, J. G.; Femmer, T.; de Laport, L.; Tigges, T.; Rahimi, K.; Gremse, F.; Zafarnia, S.; Lederle, W.; Ifuku, S.; Wessling, M.; Hardy, J. G.; Walther, A. ”Bioactive Gyroid Scaffolds Formed by Sacrificial Templating of Nanocellulose and Nanochitin Hydrogels as Instructive Platforms for Biomimetic Tissue Engineering” Adv. Mater. 27, 2989 (2015)
- Tigges, T.; Heuser, T.; Tiwari, R.; Walther, A. “3D DNA Origami Cuboids as Monodisperse Patchy Nanoparticles for Switchable Hierarchical Self-Assembly” Nano Lett. 16, 7870 (2016).
- Gröschel, A. H.; Walther, A.; Löbling, T. I. Schacher, F. H.; Schmalz, H.; Müller, A. H. E. “Guided Hierarchical Co-assembly of Soft Patchy Particles” Nature, 503, 247 (2013). (highlighted by various internet resources)
FRIAS Project
Implementation of Light-Powered Nanomachines into Polymer Bulk: From Fundamentals of Active Matter to Functional, Life-Inspired Polymer Materials.
Since they work far from thermodynamic equilibrium, biological systems exhibit active and adaptive functionalities that surpass the passive properties of present-day synthetic materials. Molecular machines are at the core of such biological out-of-equilibrium systems, and transduce energy (e.g. light, chemical) into mechanical motion and produce functions (e.g. transport, movement) from their mechanics. Our long-term vision is to develop concepts for the integration of artificial nanomachines into polymer bulk materials and develop the field of far-from- equilibrium, active polymer bulk materials (“active plastics”) – which would result in an entirely new class of life-like materials. This includes in particular to (i) realize a synthetic integration of light-powered nanomotors (capable of rotating at MHz frequency in unconstrained environment) into purposefully engineered polymers, (ii) understand the fundamental operational principles by a systematic study, and (iii) capitalize on this understanding with a first material implementation in the framework of light-adaptive mechanical high-performance biomimetic nanocomposites, inspired by the structure in mother-of-pearl. To tackle the underlying interdisciplinary challenges, we merge our expertise in a coherent research program on several levels: molecular machines, organic and supramolecular chemistry, macromolecular engineering, polymer physics, advanced characterization, materials science and non-equilibrium active matter.