Our research and competences are geared towards a broad range of energy and building applications. We have strong expertise in processing, synthesis and characterization of multi-functional porous or mesoporous silica, polymeric or composite materials, so-called xerogels and aerogels. Furthermore, we use sol-gel processes for the synthesis of functional materials such as thin films, adsorbents and mixed-oxide materials.

• Sol-gel synthesis of porous materials
• Pore structure engineering
• Inorganic (silica, carbon)/ organic (synthetic and bio- polymer based) aerogels
• Organic / inorganic composite materials
• Systematic modification of physical properties by chemical modification of aerogels
• Ambient and supercritical drying
• Thin-film deposition (spin or dip coating)

• Thermal insulation properties
• Mechanical properties
• Electron microscopy (SEM, TEM)
• Spectroscopy (solid state NMR, FT-IR, UV-Vis)
• X-Ray tomography (TOMCAT), scattering and imaging techniques
• Surface and pore structure characterization (pore size, porosity, pore shape; BET)

• Development of new high-performance insulation products
• Scale-up of production technology for industrial manufacturing of aerogels
• Consulting for building implementation of new building materials

• Screening/selection of materials for sorption applications.
• Modelling of thermal and mass transport in porous materials.
• Gelation of colloidal gels.
• Adsorption in porous materials.

• Classical molecular dynamics
• Metadynamics
• Metropolis and Grand Canonical Monte Carlo
• Statistical Aggregagion Methods (DLA, DLCA and others)
• Lumped materials model for coupled heat and mass transport
• Atomistic modelling of porous materials and colloidal systems
• Statistical Analysis of experimental results