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Recent Publications
Anmol Arya, Solomon L. Joseph, Francois Vonau, Jean-Luc Bubendorff, Silvia Siegenführ, Laurent Simon, Günter Reiter. J. Phys. Chem. C, published online
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
- Controllable processes for generating large single crystals of poly(3-hexylthiophene)
- Khosrow Rahimi, Ioan Botiz, Natalie Stingelin, Navaphun Kayunkid, Michael Sommer, Felix Peter, Vinzenz Koch, Ha Nguyen, Olivier Coulembier, Philippe Dubois, Martin Brinkmann and Günter Reiter. Angew. Chem. 124, 11293 –11297 (2012)
- Effect of Shear Stress on Crystallization of Isotactic Polypropylene from a Structured Melt
- Bin Zhang, Jingbo Chen, Jing Cui, Fangfang Ji, Guoqiang Zhen, Hui Zhang, Barbara Heck, Günter Reiter, Changyu Shen. Macromolecules 45, 8933–8937 (2012)
- Consequences of varying adsorption strength and adding steric hindrance on self-assembly of supra-molecular polymers on carbon substrates
- Roozbeh Shokri, Francois Vonau, Marion Cranney, Dominique Aubel, Ashok Narladkar, Benjamin Isare, Laurent Bouteiller, Laurent Simon, Günter Reiter. J. Phys. Chem. C 116 (40), 21594–21600 (2012)
- Segmental Relaxations Have Macroscopic Consequences in Glassy Polymer Films
- Mithun Chowdhury, Paul Freyberg, Falko Ziebert, Arnold C.-M. Yang, Ullrich Steiner and Günter Reiter. Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 136102 (2012)
- Shear-stress sensitive lenticular vesicles for targeted drug delivery
- Margaret N. Holme, Illya A. Fedotenko, Daniel Abegg, Jasmin Althaus, Lucille Babel, France Favarger, Renate Reiter, Radu Tanasescu, Pierre-Léonard Zaffalon, André Ziegler, Bert Müller, Till Saxer, Andreas Zumbuehl. Nature Nanotechnology 7, 536–543 (2012)
- Probing Properties of Polymers in Thin Films via Dewetting.
- Günter Reiter. In: "Glass Transition, Dynamics and Heterogeneity of Polymer Thin Films", Ed. Toshiji Kanaya. Springer, ISBN 978-3-642-34338-4, Adv. Polym. Sci. 252, 29 (2013)
- Thin Polymer Films Out of Thermodynamic Equilibrium
- Mithun Chowdhury. Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Fakultät für Mathematik und Physik der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, 2012
- Investigation of Melting and Re-Crystallisation Behavior of Polyethylene Nanocrystals
- Nandita Basu. Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Fakultät für Mathematik und Physik der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, 2012
- Severe deformations of malignant bone and skin cells, as well as aged cells, on micropatterned surfaces
- Patricia M. Davidson, Tokuko Haraguchi, Takako Koujin, Thorsten Steinberg, Pascal Tomakidi, Yasushi Hiraoka, Karine Anselme, Günter Reiter. In "Biomaterials Surface Science" Eds. Andreas Taubert, Joao F. Mano, Jose Carlos Rodriguez-Cabello. Wiley-VCH Germany, ISBN 978-3527330317 (2013)
- Morphological changes during annealing of polyethylene nanocrystals
- Nandita Basu, Anna Osichow, Stefan Mecking, Günter Reiter. EPJE 35,18 (2012)
- Anisotropic Charge Transport in Spherulitic Poly(3-hexylthiophene) Films
- Edward J. W. Crossland, Kim Tremel, Florian Fischer, Khosrow Rahimi, Günter Reiter, Ullrich Steiner, and Sabine Ludwigs. Adv. Mater. 24, 839–844 (2012)
- Molecular dynamics and biaxiality of nematic polymers and elastomers
- Felicitas Brömmel, Werner Stille, Heino Finkelmann, Anke Hoffmann. Soft Matter 7, 2387-2401 (2011)
- Non-equilibrium behavior of thin polymer films
- Katherine R. Thomas, Alexis Chenneviere, Günter Reiter and Ullrich Steiner. Phys. Rev. E 83, 021804 (2011)
- Depression of the Zero Growth Temperature by Counits Observed for s-Polypropylene in Light Attenuation Experiments
- Ralf Delto, Werner Stille, Gert Strobl. Macromolecules 43, 1035-1040 (2010)
- Conductance fluctuations in metal-nanoparticle-metal junctions
- L. V. Govor, G. H. Bauer, G. Reiter, and J. Parisi. Phys. Rev. B 82, 155437 (2010)
- Aging of thin polymer films cast from a near-theta solvent
- Adam Raegen, Mithun Chowdhury, Christophe Calers, Alexander Schmatulla, Ullrich Steiner, and Günter Reiter. Phys. Rev. Letters 105, 227801 (2010)
- Spreading of Liquids on Substrates
- Günter Reiter. In Handbook of Adhesion Technology. Eds. Lucas Filipe Martins da Silva, Andreas Öchsner, Robert Adams. Springer 2011
- Systematic Control of Nucleation Density in Poly(3-hexylthiophene) Thin Films
- Edward J. W. Crossland, Khosrow Rahimi, Günter Reiter, Ullrich Steiner, and Sabine Ludwigs. Advanced Functional Materials 21, 518–524 (2011)
- Possible origin of thickness-dependent deviations from bulk properties of thin polymer films
- Günter Reiter, Simone Napolitano. Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics 48, 2544-2547 (2010)
- Surface-induced breakout crystallization in cylinderforming P(I-b-EO) diblock copolymer thin films
- C.M. Papadakis, C. Darko, Z. Di, K. Troll, E. Metwalli, A. Timmann, G. Reiter, and S. Förster. European Physical Journal E 34, 7 (2011)