Welcome to the Institute of Nanotechnology

KIT, Uni Marburg

Researchers from KIT and the Philipps-Universität Marburg have isolated an all-metal aromatic bismuth ring sandwiched in a cobalt-based complex, defining a new era of aromatic compounds with potential applications in catalysis and electronic devices (Nature Chemistry, 2025).

Marco Schilling

The Hector Science Award 2024 by the Hector Fellow Academy for Stefanie Dehnen (INT) and Matthias H. Tschöp (TU München) honours outstand­ing research in the fields of inorganic chemistry and mater­ial research (Dehnen) as well as diabetes and obesity research (Tschöp).

Authors, KIT

Researchers from the US, China and the KIT have studied negatively charged bismuth clusters and found a remarkable stability of Bi-18 clusters to oxidation despite the existence of an unpaired electron. It suggests a structural route to larger clusters with interesting electronic properties.

KIT, JLU, Peking University

Researchers from KIT, JLU Gießen and Peking University demonstrated an all-solid-state
lithium–sulfur battery (ASSLSB) with a redox mediator that displays ultrafast charging capability, high specific capacity and an ultrastable cycling performance. This might pave the way to batteries with high specific energy, high safety and low cost.

Kurt Fuchs/HI ERN

A closed-loop workflow that combines high-throughput synthesis of organic semiconductors to create large datasets and Bayesian optimization to discover new hole-transporting materials with tailored properties for solar cell applications was used to identify and synthesize a series of high-performance molecules.

KIT, Anastasia August

Dr. Anastasia August won first prize in three Science Slams at Eislingen, Heidelberg and Karlsruhe with her talk about harvesting solar energy by example of a polar bear, demonstrating her impressive talent in science communication. We congratulate Anastasia to her success and are proud to have her in the INT team.

Xuchen Wang and Harbin Engineering University

Researchers from INT in the group of Prof. Carsten Rockstuhl and Harbin Engineering University showed that the momentum band gap of photonic time crystals can be drastically expanded by temporal variations in a resonant material. The resonance can emerge from a suitably spatially structured material like an optical metasurface, thus paving the way towards the first experimental realizations of photonic time crystals.

Jonathan Schneider, KIT

By introducing connections beyond nearest-neighbor elements researchers in the group of Prof. Martin Wegener managed to design a metamaterial using 3D laser microprinting that displays anomalous frozen evanescent phonons to achieve nonlocal stress and stretching response which could be used for remote mechanical sensing.

KIT

Researchers from INT together with colleagues from the China, Colombia and the US have combined in-situ scanning transmission electron microscopy and atomistic simulations to elucidate the mechanisms of grain rotation in nanocrystalline Platinum.

KIT

This symposium aims to honor the scientific achievements of Prof. Annie Powell on the occasion of her 65th birthday through presentations by long-standing collaborators and friends, recognizing her strong commitment to equality and diversity with respect to gender and ethnicity.

Chem4Quant

The newly proposed Cluster of Excellence Chemical Design of Highly Precise Quantum Architectures (Chem4Quant) is a collaboration of KIT, the University of Stuttgart and Ulm University. It aims at quantum architectures with molecular structures to develop novel quantum devices and to implement first components for the future quantum internet.

3DMM2O

The DFG Cluster of Excellence 3D Matter Made to Order (3DMM2O) is a collaboration of KIT and Heidelberg University. It aims to establish scalable digital 3D Additive Manufacturing from the molecular to the macroscopic scale. This approach converts digital information into functional materials, devices and systems “made to order.”

POLiS

The DFG Cluster of Excellence Post Lithium Storage (POLiS) is a collaboration of KIT, Ulm University, the ZSW and the University of Giessen. POLiS aims to develop the necessary new battery materials and technology concepts beyond lithium for efficient and sustainable storage of electrical energy.

Christine Liebhardt, Uni Ulm

Prof. Maximilian Fichtner, Director of the Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU) and since more than twenty years affiliated with the INT, was awarded the Wissenschaftspreis of the City of Ulm for his outstanding research on electrochemical storage and his contributions to scientific communication as an expert on this topic within the German speaking countries.

Oliver Townrow

Dr. Oliver Townrow will start his independent career at INT, funded by both the VCI Liebig Fellowship and the KIT YIG Prep Pro funded fellowship. The Townrow research group will utilise the direct method metal vapour synthesis (MVS) to target novel complexes containing metals across the periodic table in their zero-oxidation state. These will then be explored as soluble Single-Atom Sources to prepare functional organometallics.

KIT

This review by a collaboration of INT scientists on the recent research on high-entropy materials highlights their emerging potential in energy and electronic applications, based mainly on the intrinsic features of the "cocktail effect" and the lattice distortions of these materials. The emphasis lies on ionic and covalent ceramic materials.

Dr. Johannes Richers | Visual Science Communication

The proposal "Chemical Design of Highly Precise Quantum Architectures" (Chem4Quant) was selected by the DFG expert council to enter a full proposal for the "Clusters of Excellence" funding line. The initiative by the KIT, the University of Stuttgart and the University of Ulm was headed for the KIT by Prof. Mario Ruben of INT.

Nature / AOC, KIT

In organometallic chemistry, so-called sandwich complexes always displayed linear chain structures. Now researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Philipps-Universität Marburg have formed multi-level sandwich complexes into nanoscale rings and named them  "cyclocenes". The work has been published in Nature.

Stefanie Dehnen, KIT

For her pioneering research on molecular multinary cluster nanoarchitectures for applications in catalysts, white-light emitters, and battery materials Prof. Dr. Stefanie Dehnen was awarded the Alexander Todd-Hans Krebs Lectureship by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh).

Queensland University of Technology

Prof. Dr. Barner-Kowollik won the Centenary Prize of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) for the development and photophysical understanding of precision macromolecular photochemistry, and for excellence in communication. He and his team developed the ‘action plot analysis’ to understand photochemical processes in the realm of polymer chemistry with never-before-seen precision.

Dr. Jens Bauer, KIT

Using a hybrid organic-inorganic polymer resin as starting material the group of Dr. Jens Bauer succeeded in 3D printing of silicon dioxide nanostructures without the need of a high-temperature sintering process, as reported in Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.abq3037 )

Markus Breig, Amadeus Bramsiepe, KIT

One of the prestigious Consolidator Grants of the European Research Council (ERC) was awarded to Dr. Frank Biedermann of INT for his "SupraSense" project on highly specific sensors for medical diagnostics that mimic enzyme pockets. T.T.-Prof. Dr. Ulrich W. Paetzold of IMT received a Consolidator Grant for his LAMI-PERO project on perovskite solar cells.

Rolf K. Wegst

The Leopoldina National Academy of Sciences awarded the newly established Greve Prize to Prof. Dr. Jürgen Janek (Justus Liebig University at Gießen and KIT, INT) and Prof. Dr. Kerstin Volz (Philipps University at Marburg) for their research on fundamental properties of solid-state batteries.

Stefanie Dehnen, KIT

On October 1st 2022 Prof. Dr. Stefanie Dehnen succeeded Prof. Dr.-Ing. Horst Hahn as Executive Director of the INT. Prof. Dehnen won the Leibniz-Preis for her research on Inorganic Molecular Chemistry in 2022.

Christian Grupe, KIT

Researchers of KIT with collaborators from France have produced an effective molecular photon-nuclear spin interface. This is major progress in the development of materials for processing quantum information with light.

KIT, Daniela Di Maio

Mrs. Heidi Hagel and Mrs. Felicitas Lauer have received the award for Outstanding Performance in their support  of INT scientists by the KIT Freundeskreis und Fördergesellschaft e.V. within the event "Junge Talente" on May 21st, 2022.

Amadeus Bramsiepe, KIT

The prize is considered the most distinguished award for young investigators in Germany. In his work, Pascal Friederich focuses on the use of artificial intelligence in material simulation, virtual material design, and autonomous experimental platforms for automatic material recognition.

Dennis Arslan, Universität Jena

Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Friedrich Schiller University of Jena have developed a diffuser, a disk that scatters light, based on silicon nanoparticles. It can be used to control the direction, color, and polarization of light.

TU Delft, Annelies van't Hul

For his long and successful research on Solid State Ionics Prof. Dr. Jürgen Janek was awarded an honory doctorate by the Technical University of Delft, Netherlands (Laudatio starts at 7:20).

Professor Rasmus Schröder, University of Heidelberg, Vincent Hahn, KIT

3D laser printers for 3-dimensional microstructures and nanostructures so far require big and expensive laser systems. Researchers of KIT and the Heidelberg University developed a process with inexpensive and small laser diodes, allowing for much smaller printers.

Uwe Dettmar

In 2021 the Aventis Foundation granted this highly-endowed Postdoctoral Award to researchers working at research-intensive German universities.  Dr. Frank Biedermann from INT was one of only three awardees.

C. Grupe, KIT

We demonstrate efficient polarization of ground state nuclear spins of a binuclear Europium complex via light.  This shows the feasibilty of light addressable nuclear spin qubits in such rare-earth complexes.

KIT

We use scanning tunneling spectroscopy with a spin-polarized tip to indirectly read out the spin of a rare-earth atom of a single molecule magnet exploiting the exchange splitting of the Kondo resonance.

KIT

A novel strategy based on dip-pen nanolithography generated microarrays of supported lipid membranes allows for highly selective and efficient capture of extracellular vesicles.

Sandeep Kumar, KIT

By growing a metal-organic framework directly onto the graphene of a field-effect transistor device selective sensing of molecules has been demonstrated by a collaboration of groups from IFG and INT.

KIT

We present High-Entropy Metal-Organic Frameworks that show much improved stability and near perfect Coulombic efficiency as a storage material based on sodium.

Roman Kulagin, KIT

The structural patterns of Earth's lithosphere is particularly rich and can inspire innovative designs of structural and architectured materials.

Markus Breig (KIT)

The CORAERO project studies the spreading of Corona viruses via aerosols. The INT group of Prof. Hahn is among the four participating KIT groups with their contribution to further Aerobuster development.

"KNMFi makes the invisible visible" is the motto of a video which features several KNMF technologies operated by our INT colleagues in Bldg. 640.

Cluster 3DMM2O / Agentur Triebfeder

Carl Zeiss Foundation Scholarship holder Britta Weidinger talks about her research carried out at INT within the framework of the Excellence Cluster 3DMM2O.

KIT/Janek/Wegener

INT research unit heads Prof. Dr. Jürgen Janek and Prof. Dr. Martin Wegener are among the eight KIT scientists on the 2020 list of Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate / Web of Science.

KIT/Aghassi

A hybrid physical unclonable function based on metal oxide thin film devices, exploiting the inherent randomness of printed materials, was demonstrated by researchers of KIT.

KIT/Martin Breig

Researchers of KIT developed a simple device to effectively kill the Corona virus in aerosols of ambient air in closed rooms.

KIT/INT

You can now take virtual lab tours through some of our synthesis, structuring and spectroscopy facilities.

Entropy-stabilized multianionic and multicationic oxyhalides have been used as cathodes for Li-ion batteries.