Professor Horst Weller is the Director of the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the University of Hamburg. Additionally, Prof. Weller founded the Center of Interdisciplinary Nanoscience and the Center for Applied Nanotechnology (recently accepted as Fraunhofer center), which focus on fundamental and applied (respectively) aspects of various fields of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, covering a wide variety of related topics, naturally including surface and colloid chemistry.
Prof. Weller has pioneered nanocrystal research, with an initial emphasis on the colloidal synthesis and characterization of quantum dots, having largely contributed to the understanding of their surface and electronic properties. Weller’s group has also developed wet chemistry methods for the synthesis of colloidal magnetic nanoparticles, which have become very popular and important. Apart from synthesis and characterization, Prof. Weller also made important contributions to the field of nanoparticle self-assembly into 2D and 3D supercrystals. During the past decade his research has been mostly directed to systematic studies on surface modification of semiconductor and magnetic nanocrystals for biomedical applications. His recent advances concerned the combination of fluorescent and magnetic properties in individual nanoparticles. These hybrids are especially promising for biological applications, where on one hand complementary modes of detection are required and on the other hand a combination of detection and magnetic heating is helpful for theranostics. The group of Prof. Weller has also gone the first successful steps into this direction. Other research areas include the development for quantum dot based materials for optoelectronics and mechanical properties of nanocomposites. Prof. Weller’s research had a huge international recognition, which is not only reflected in a large number of citations (over 35,000, h-index = 90), but also in numerous plenary lectures at international conferences and editorial board membership in some of the most prestigious journals and important research centers.
Nanocomposites of Highly Monodisperse Encapsulated Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanocrystals Homogeneously Dispersed in a Poly(ethylene Oxide) Melt. A. Feld, R. Koll, L. S. Fruhner, M. Krutyeva, W. Pyckhout-Hintzen, C. Weiss, H. Heller, A. Weimer, C. Schmidtke, M.-S. Appavou, E. Kentzinger, J. Allgaier, H. Weller. ACS Nano 11, 3767-3775 (2017)
Organically linked iron oxide nanoparticle supercrystals with exceptional isotropic mechanical properties. Axel Dreyer, Artur Feld, Andreas Kornowski, Ezgi D. Yilmaz, Heshmat Noei, Andreas Meyer, Tobias Krekeler, Chengge Jiao, Andreas Stierle, Volker Abetz, Horst Weller, Gerold A. Schneider. Nature Materials 15, 522-528 (2016)
Solid-State Chemistry on the Nanoscale: Ion Transport through Interstitial Sites or Vacancies?. Cornelia Bothe, Andreas Kornowski, Hans Tornatzky, Christian Schmidtke, Holger Lange, Janina Maultzsch, Horst Weller. Angewandte Chemie, International Edition 54, 14183-14186 (2015)
A Universal Approach to Ultrasmall Magneto-Fluorescent Nanohybrids. Artur Feld, Jan-Philip Merkl, Hauke Kloust, Sandra Flessau, Christian Schmidtke, Christopher Wolter, Johannes Ostermann, Michael Kampferbeck, Robin Eggers, Alf Mews, Theo Schotten, Horst Weller. Angewandte Chemie, International Edition54, 12468-12471 (2015)
Virtually Bare Nanocrystal Surfaces: Significantly Enhanced Electrical Transport in CuInSe2 and CuIn1-xGaxSe2 Thin Films upon Ligand Exchange with Thermally Degradable 1-Ethyl-5- Thiotetrazole. Jannika Lauth, Jakob Marbach, Andreas Meyer, Sedat Dogan, Christian Klinke, Andreas Kornowski, Horst Weller. Advanced Functional Materials 24, 1081-1088 (2014)