This theme concerns the design and manufacture of surfaces with specific functionalities and properties using tailormade polymers, colloids, surface modification and deposition strategies. It involves the development of well-defined polymers and colloidal particles (organic/inorganic) and the combination of these into functional composites, (crosslinked, porous) networks or films. The main objective is to achieve advanced materials with functional surfaces and advanced properties, such as controlled wettability, self-healing, anti-fouling, friction reduction, swelling/shrinking, on-demand (water) absorption/release and stretchable conductors. This is achieved by designing the chemistry and topography of the materials’ surfaces and investigating their chemical and physical properties to finetune the material functionality and properties.
This work is highly connected to the study of coatings and can contribute to the development of functional coatings, e.g., with self-healing abilities, or to the fundamental understanding of interactions in complex mixtures and environments, e.g., additives in paint formulations or applied coating films with self-segregating/self-stratified components. Furthermore, we create functional (electrically and thermally conductive, porous, flexible, stretchable) multiscale 3D networks by combining bottom-up self-organization and top-down approaches such as (3D) printing. This work is relevant for applications in printed electronics, water harvesters and energy generation, conversion and storage.