Materials Chain

 
Materials Chain is the first flagship program initiated by the University Alliance Ruhr. As a unique and innovative research network, it bundles the manifold research activities in the field of materials science and technology at the three Ruhr Area universities Ruhr-Universität Bochum, TU Dortmund University, and the University of Duisburg-Essen into one focused alliance for science and education. More than 240 researchers from the three universities and their partner institutions pool their resources and expertise to strengthen the Ruhr Area’s role as an internationally leading region of research on modern materials – from self-healing plastics and magnetic cooling to shape memory alloys and more.
 
Take a look behind the laboratory doors of some of the natural scientists and engineers working within the Materials Chain network:
 

Upcoming Events

Who are we? Why is collaboration important in modern materials science? And what are we working on?

Learn more about our network

 
 

Materials Chain International Conference 2021

The third Materials Chain International Conference, originally planned for November 2020, is postponed due to the Corona virus pandemic.

The conference, now titled MCIC 2021: Materials Discovery and Processing for Energy, will take place from February 25 to February 26, 2021 in Bochum, Germany. The conference will focus on the following topics:

  • Data-driven and combinatorial materials discovery
  • Materials for physical energy conversion, 2D and hybrid fuctional materials
  • Materials for chemical energy conversion
  • Magnetic materials energy conversion
  • Metals and alloys
  • Production engineering and additive manufacturing
  • Transfer: Start-ups and systems

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Latest News

Nanocatalysts Made of Metallic Glass

Humboldt Fellow at NETZ

They combine the properties of metal and glass and thus reveal new possibilities: Among other features, metallic glasses have extraordinary catalytic properties. Dr. Shunxing Liang intends to exploit this for water splitting, i.e. the production of hydrogen as an energy carrier. To this end, he wants to generate nanoparticles of this promising material by pulse laser ablation in liquids. The 29-year-old is a Humboldt Fellow at the NanoEnergieTechnik-Zentrum (NETZ) at the University of Duisburg-Essen... read more

Superconducting Nickelates

Cuprate-like Behavior in a Nickel-oxide Film

Superconductors transmit electric current without loss at any distance and play an important role in quantum computers and medical imaging. Unfortunately, the stars among the electrical conductors work exclusively at extremely low temperatures. Since the discovery of high-temperature superconducting cuprates with their characteristic copper-oxygen plaquettes in 1986, scientists have been searching for similar behavior in other materials classes. It was not until 2019 that superconductivity was reported... read more

Science and Society in Dialogue

Engineer Appointed to the Young Academy of the Leopoldina

Anyone who is a member here has not only written an excellent dissertation, but has also done outstanding work beyond that - and has done so at a young age: Junior Professor Doris Segets from the Center for Nanointegration (CENIDE) at University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) has been appointed to the Young Academy of the Leopoldina. Together with 49 other scientists and artists, she now has the opportunity for five years to help shape the exchange between society and research. "My selection interview... read more