Publications
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Recent Publications
Spatiotemporal Sequence of Interdependent Nucleation Mechanisms in Ultrathin Polymer Films
Da Huang, Rana Bakhshi, Raoul M. D'Anselme, Günter Reiter. Macromolecules, published online
Employing defined starting conditions of ultrathin molten poly(ethylene oxide) films on model solid substrates, we investigated the spatiotemporal sequence of interdependent mechanisms of crystal nucleation. Due to the limited number and the preferred conformation of polymer chains parallel to the substrate, primary nucleation favored edge-on lamellar crystals, which indirectly induced other subsequent nucleation pathways, enabled through the molten polymer chains accumulated at their peripheral fold surfaces. Both additional edge-on lamellar crystals and branched flat-on lamellar crystals were initiated. For long-chain polymers, spatial correlations between lamellar crystals across intervening noncrystalline regions were established through polymer chains incorporated within neighboring lamellae. (more...)
Decai Lin, Zebin Su, Yuxiang Chen, Jianquan Xu, Günter Reiter, Cuiyun Zhang, Xinping Wang. Macromolecules 59 (2026) 4970–4981
Using infrared reflection–absorption spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy, we revealed that polymer–substrate interactions, chain length, and film thickness critically influenced the morphology and orientation of lamellar crystals of poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) grown at a constant temperature. In contrast to the often-observed monotonic change from preferentially flat-on to edge-on crystals upon increasing film thickness, an unprecedented nonmonotonic change in the dominating orientation of lamellar crystals from edge-on to flat-on and back to edge-on was observed. In the thinnest films, size confinement and adsorption-induced alignment of the chains favored the nucleation and growth of edge-on lamellar crystals. Enhanced polymer–substrate interactions promoted the formation of edge-on lamellar crystals in the thinnest films with a higher molecular weight. (more..)
Anmol Arya, Solomon L. Joseph, Francois Vonau, Jean-Luc Bubendorff, Silvia Siegenführ, Laurent Simon, Günter Reiter. J. Phys. Chem. C 2026, 130, 5536–5546
In the course of electrospraying in a vacuum, polymers acquire electric charges, which are distributed along their backbone. Here, we demonstrate that these charges have a strong impact on the molecular ordering and spectroscopic properties of conjugated polymers when deposited on substrates with an insulating oxide layer. To this end, we electrosprayed varying amounts of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) onto silicon substrates with oxide layers of different thickness. The resulting morphologies were explored by atomic force microscopy. The corresponding spectroscopic properties, including their changes in time upon illumination, were derived from photoluminescence (PL) measurements. On insulating substrates, charges were retained on the polymer chains, causing long-range electrostatic repulsion and the formation of largely separated droplet-like objects containing multiple chains. These objects exhibited significant PL intensities for photons with a wavelength (λ) less than ca. 600 nm, suggesting the lack of π–π stacking interactions between P3HT chains. (more...)
Reversible Metamorphosis of a Conjugated Polymer Induced by Photoexcitation
Solomon Joseph, Anmol Arya, Günter Reiter. Advanced Photonics Research 7 (2026) e202500311
Optoelectronic properties of materials are frequently examined through spectroscopic tools based on the absorption and emission of (visible) photons. Typically, one assumes that these transient characterization processes do not cause observable change of these properties because of the low power of the employed light sources. However, for flexible conjugated polymers in a medium of low viscosity, it is decidedly unclear whether photoexcitation of electrons on the backbone of a long polymer chain has an influence on macromolecular conformations and the corresponding intermolecular interactions. Here, we provide clear experimental evidence that continuous absorption of photons progressively causes persistent changes in the spectroscopic properties of conjugated polymers, accompanied by microscopically observable changes in their spatial distribution within a low-viscosity matrix. By contrast, all these changes were completely absent in nonilluminated parts of the same sample.(more...)
Temperature dependence of crystal – melt coexistence for supported polyethylene filaments
Da Huang, Thorsten Hugel, Bizan N. Balzer, Günter Reiter. Nature Communications 16 (2025) 11127
The broken symmetry of molecular interactions at interfaces is causing that crystals are often covered by a thin liquid layer of their own melt. Such crystal–melt coexistence can be related to phenomena of surface premelting, secondary nucleation and melting point depression, particularly important for small systems. Here, we employed intermittent-contact mode atomic force microscopy imaging on nanoscopic semi-cylindrical filaments of polyethylene on a substrate to observe that these filaments contained a crystalline core bounded by molten regions of rather uniform width, W_soft= (9 ± 2) nm at room temperature, which increased reversibly with temperature T. Filaments smaller than ca. 2∙W_soft (T) were completely molten. The values of W_soft (T) compared favorably with theoretically predicted characteristic length scales in the context of nucleation, surface premelting and the melting point depression of finite size crystals. Altogether, we show that these three phenomena are related and dominated by the intermolecular forces acting at crystal surfaces.(more...)
List of Publications
- Vesicle Origami and the Influence of Cholesterol on Lipid Packing
- Radu Tanasescu, Martin A. Lanz, Dennis Mueller, Stephanie Tassler, Takashi Ishikawa, Renate Reiter, Gerald Brezesinski, and Andreas Zumbuehl. Langmuir 32 (2016) 4896−4903
- Self-assembly behavior of a rod-like polypeptide at the air-water interface
- Renate Reiter, Frédéric Wintzenrieth, Günter Reiter. Polymer 107 (2016) 379–386
- Covalent Functionalization by Cycloaddition Reactions of Pristine Defect-Free Graphene
- L. Daukiya, C. Mattioli, D. Aubel, S. Hajjar-Garreau, F. Vonau, E.Denys, G. Reiter, J. Fransson, E. Perrin, M-L. Bocquet, C. Bena, A. Gourdon, and L. Simon. ACS Nano 11 (2017) 627–634
- How Molecules with Dipole Moments Enhance the Selectivity of Electrodes in Organic Solar Cells – A Combined Experimental and Theoretical Approach
- Uli Würfel, Martin Seßler, Moritz Unmüssig, Nils Hofmann, Mathias List, Eric Mankel, Thomas Mayer, Günter Reiter, Jean-Luc Bubendorff, Laurent Simon, and Markus Kohlstädt. Adv. Energy Mat. 1600594 (2016)
- Flow-Induced Dendritic β-Form Isotactic Polypropylene Crystals in Thin Films
- Bin Zhang, Binghua Wang, JiaJia Chen, Changyu Shen, Renate Reiter, Jingbo Chen, and Günter Reiter. Macromolecules 49 (2016) 5145−5151
- Assembling semiconducting molecules by covalent attachment to a lamellar crystalline polymer substrate
- Rainhard Machatschek, Patrick Ortmann, Renate Reiter, Stefan Mecking and Günter Reiter. Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 7 (2016) 784–798
- When hole extraction determines charge transfer across metal-organic-metal structure
- L. V. Govor, G. Reiter and J. Parisi, EPL, 113 (2016) 57002
- Influence of interfacial trap states on injecting and extracting of charges across a metal-organic interface
- L.V. Govor, G. Reiter and J. Parisi. J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 49 (2016) 135306
- Continuous Fused Deposition Modelling of Architectural Envelopes Based on the Shell Formation of Molluscs: A Research Review
- James H. Nebelsick, Christoph Allgaier, Benjamin Felbrich, Daniel Coupek, Renate Reiter, Günter Reiter, Achim Menges, Armin Lechler, Karl-Heinz Wurst. In book: Biomimetic Research for Architecture and Building Construction. Eds. Jan Knippers, Klaus Nickel, Thomas Speck. Springer 2016
- Tunneling of charge carriers across a gold–squaraine interface
- L.V. Govor, G. Reiter and J. Parisi, Physics Letters A 380 (2016) 1493–1498
- Intrinsic Stresses in Thin Glassy Polymer Films Revealed by Crack Formation
- Mithun Chowdhury, Xiaoyuan Sheng, Falko Ziebert, Arnold C.-M. Yang, Alessandro Sepe, Ullrich Steiner, and Günter Reiter. Macromolecules 49 (2016) 9060−9067
- Revealing Order and Disorder in Films and Single Crystals of a Thiophene-Based Oligomer by Optical Spectroscopy
- Sajedeh Motamen, Dominic Raithel, Richard Hildner, Khosrow Rahimi, Thibaut Jarrosson, Françoise Serein-Spirau, Laurent Simon, and Günter Reiter. ACS Photonics 3 (2016) 2315–2323
- Poly(2,5-dioctylphenyl-3-thiophene) synthesized by direct arylation polycondensation: End groups, defects and crystallinity
- Daniel Schiefer, Hartmut Komber, Fanuel Mugwanga Keheze, Susanna Kunz, Ralf Hanselmann, Guenter Reiter, Michael Sommer. Macromolecules 49 (2016) 7230-7237
- Transient cooperative processes in dewetting polymer melts
- Sivasurender Chandran, Günter Reiter, PRL 116 (2016) 088301
- Crystallization and Resulting Optical Properties of Thiophene-Based Oligomers
- Sajedeh Motamen. Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrads der Fakultät für Mathematik und Physik der Universität Freiburg, 2016
- Large area crystal surfaces of precisely sidebranched polyethylenes: Preparation, surface order and functionalization
- Rainhard Machatschek. Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Fakultät für Chemie und Pharmazie der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im Breisgau, 2016
- Probing the Elasticity of Langmuir Polymer Films of High Molecular Weight Poly (γ-benzyl-L-glutamate)
- Emna Khechine. Master Thesis im Studiengang M.Sc. Sustainable Materials, 2016
- Self-assembled nanotubes and nanoribbons of aromatic diamide-esters
- Asad Jamal. Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrads der Fakultät für Mathematik und Physik der Universität Freiburg, 2016
- Formation and Optical Characterization of Single Crystals of Poly(3-Hexylthiophene) (P3HT), a Model Conjugated Polymer
- John O. Agumba. Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrads der Fakultät für Mathematik und Physik der Universität Freiburg, 2016
- History Dependent Temporal Changes of Properties of Thin Polymer Films
- Günter Reiter. In: Non-equilibrium Phenomena in Confined Soft Matter. Ed. Simone Napolitano. Springer 2015