Dr Helmut Schäfer
February 10, 2014
13.00 – 14.30
Beijing – 2 Auditorium, China cluster (Skolkovo School of Management)

SEMINAR ABSTRACT:

It is impossible today to imagine nanoscience away from modern materials science. Especially luminescent nanoparticles have been proposed for several applications. Above all the use of these nanoparticles for bioimaging experiments require high standards regarding
the size, size distribution, uniformity and optical properties. The observer gains the impression that in the last 5-7 years a race has kindled for the best nanoparticles mainly in terms of uniformity and size distribution between the research groups around the world.
Drawbacks of common approaches leading to particles fulfilling the high demands of contemporary applications are for example the emission of toxic gases, high reaction
temperatures and the need for the presence of highly pure inert gases which therefore limit the overall practicability of the procedures. While many struggling in the perfection of the solution-based syntheses, relatively less efforts were put in the development or further prosecution of alternative generation opportunities. One possible alternative approach leading to micro- and nanoparticles will be briefly introduced in the talk which can be roughly divided into two parts A and B. In part A I would like to describe the investigations I performed at different Universities and Institutes. This part contains fundamental research (main group chemistry), more application oriented surface engineering, (corrosion protection of alloys and surface modification of HTS superconductors) as well as generation and application of novel multifunctional nanoparticles like for instance luminescent, up-converting nanoparticles. In part B I will outline the planned scientific investigations on a three year scale.
SPEAKER INTRODUCTION:

Helmut Schäfer was born in 1968 in Leer, a small city situated in the North of Germany. He grew up as the fourth of four children in Detern, a small village not far away from Leer. In 1991 he joined the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany where he studied Chemistry and finished his studies with his dissertation on the field of Organic Germanium Compounds. The core result of his doctoral work was the generation and characterization of the first Hexaaryltetragermabuta-1,3-diene: A Molecule with Conjugated Ge-Ge Double Bonds. As a postdoctoral fellow, he moved to the Institute of Material Science (IWT) Bremen, German Aerospace Center Cologne, and to the University of Osnabrueck.
Since 2004 he has been a researcher in the group of Prof. Markus Haase and in 2009 he joined the group of Martin Steinhart at the same University. In 2013 he joined the Freie Universität Berlin where he is actually a Senior Scientist. His research interests are closely connected with materials science and include the investigation of alternative synthesis routes to known compounds as well as the synthesis of novel inorganic compounds with particular characteristics.