EXC 3120:  BlueMat: Water-Driven Materials

• Subject Area: Materials Science
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 533771286

Biological materials achieve an exquisite diversity and functionality through just a small number of abundant chemical elements. While engineering materials primarily use specific, often unsustainable, chemical compositions to realize their functions, nature achieves unparalleled functionality through optimized architectures that span multiple length scales. Water, with its ubiquity and unique structural dynamics, plays a pivotal role as a “working fluid” in shaping the properties and functionality of nature’s materials. Inspired by these marvels of nature, BlueMat will develop a novel class of sustainable, interactive, architected “Blue Materials” deriving their functionality from multiscale structures of hard matter interacting with water. This approach is internationally unique. We will mimic natural processes such as water-driven mechanical actuation, capillarity-driven water transport, humidity-dependent colors, and photocatalytic water splitting, as observed in animals and plants, and extend them to functionalities not found in nature, such as control of acoustic and electromagnetic waves, tunable thermal emission and electrical energy storage and generation. To this end, we will study and exploit novel effects, achieved, for example, through nanoconfinement of water. We will combine experiments with imaging and modeling from the atomic up to the device scale and bridge the gap between top-down and bottom-up fabrication methods to enable scalable production of Blue Materials. BlueMat raises and answers compelling and fundamentally new scientific questions. It promises a radically new concept to functionalize materials, and it will demonstrate the fascinating opportunities of this approach by a host of device-level applications. These include novel energy efficient windows and hydrovoltaic power generation, harvesting electrical energy from environmental processes or waste heat. To accomplish this, BlueMat draws upon the exceptional talents of an interdisciplinary team from several world-class research institutions in Hamburg with outstanding expertise in molecular water science, materials science, process engineering, and diverse application areas (e.g., micromechanics, fluidics, photonics, energy systems). BlueMat will enrich this environment with an artistic dimension, allowing science and art to cross-fertilize and open inspiring new avenues of co-creation. BlueMat leverages Hamburg’s ecosystem of brilliant X-ray analytics, natural sciences, and engineering with a strong focus on sustainable technologies, unique in the world. The vision of this Cluster of Excellence is to make Hamburg a world leader in the science and technology of water-driven materials, thus continuing Hamburg’s history as a city “driven” by water and contributing to the well-being of our blue planet.

• DFG Programme: Clusters of Excellence (ExStra)
• Applicant Institution: Technische Universität Hamburg
• Participating Institution: Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM); Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY); European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Facility (XFEL) GmbH; Helmholtz-Zentrum hereon GmbH; Helmut-Schmidt-Universität; Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg; Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg; Max-Planck-Institut für Struktur und Dynamik der Materie (MPSD); Universität Hamburg
• Spokespersons: Professor Dr.-Ing. Christian Johannes Cyron; Professor Dr. Patrick Huber; Professorin Dr.-Ing. Irina Smirnova
• Participating Researchers: Professor Dr. Roland Aydin; Professor Dr. Robert H. Blick; Professor Dr.-Ing. Bodo Fiedler; Professor Dr. Michael Fröba; Professor Dr. Johannes Gescher; Professor Dr. Norbert Hoffmann; Professor Dr.-Ing. Norbert Huber; Professorin Dr. Dorota Koziej; Professor Dr.-Ing. Alexander Kölpin; Professor Dr. Andreas Liese; Professorin Dr. Franziska Lissel; Professor Dr.-Ing. Robert Horst Meißner; Professorin Dr. Kaline Pagnan Furlan; Dr. Alexander Petrov; Dr. Mariana Rossi; Professorin Dr.-Ing. Shan Shi; Professor Nima Shokri; Professor Dr. Andreas Stierle; Professorin Dr. Francesca Maria Toma; Professor Dr.-Ing. Jörg Weißmüller; Professorin Dr. Berit Zeller-Plumhoff; Professor Dr. Mikhail Zheludkevich