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MAX
PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR POLYMER RESEARCH
The
Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research was founded on June
1st, 1983 following a recommendation of the German Science
Council (Wissenschaftsrat) that an interdisciplinary institution
of polymer research should be established in view of the importance
of macromolecules in science, technology and industry. The
central thrust of the Institute was to be basic research in
the field of polymeric materials. Prof. Erhard W. Fischer
and Prof. Gerhard Wegner were appointed as founding directors
representing the physics and solid state chemistry of polymers.
In autumn 1984 Prof. Hans W. Spiess joined the Institute as
director in the field of polymer spectroscopy. The fourth
department, headed by Prof. Klaus Mullen, was established
in December 1989 in the field of synthetic macromolecular
chemistry. In 1993 Prof. Wolfgang Knoll was appointed as the
fifth director, working in the field of material science.
Another department in the field of polymer theory will be
opened at the end of 1994. Each director is supported by a
senior scientist (on the associate professor level) working
independently with his own group on related research topics.
Prof. Kurt Binder, theoretical physicist at the University
of Mainz, was appointed as an external scientific member of
the Institute in 1989.
Scientific work at the Institute started in autumn 1984 in
temporary laboratories that were made available by the University
of Mainz and by the Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry which
is also located on the University campus. A first part of
the institute's permanent building on the edge of the University
campus was completed in autumn 1988 and consists of a working
area of 10,000 m2 Of which laboratories comprise 5,500 m2.
An extension of the building was finished at the end of 1990
with an additional 3,000 m2 Of laboratory space. At present
the overall number of employees is 390, of which 50 are staff
scientists and 110 are staff technicians. There are also about
40 visiting scientists, 90 Ph.D. students and 20 diploma students.
The scientific work of the Institute is organized in research
projects in which scientists of different groups interact
in an interdisciplinary way. The objectives of the Institute
are directed on the one hand towards the synthesis and exact
physico-chemical characterization of macromolecular systems
and on the other hand towards understanding the relationship
between macroscopic and microscopic properties of polymeric
materials. Besides the analysis of known technically important
polymers, new materials with unconventional properties are
investigated. New experimental and theoretical methods have
to be developed to allow a better understanding of structure-property
relationships to be obtained.
Major
topics include:
Structure and dynamics of macromolecular systems (including
polymer interfaces and polymer theory)
Thermodynamics, phase transitions and critical phenomena (including
the physics of polymer blends, block copolymers and glass
transition phenomena)
Supramolecular architecture of macromolecules (stiff macromolecules,
liquid crystalline polymers, model membranes, ultrathin films,
polymers at surfaces)
Special physical properties (electrical conductivity, nonlinear
optics, deformation behavior of glassy polymers)
Synthetic macromolecular chemistry (new synthetic methods,
polymers with unconventional structures, systems of selective
functionality, e.g. electrical or thermal conductivity, polysaccharides,
solid polyelectrolytes)
Methodological developments (solid state NMR spectroscopy,
EPR spectroscopy, dielectric spectroscopy, nonlinear optics,
surface plasmon optics, scanning probe microscopy, i.e. STM,
AFM and SNOM, neutron and X-ray reflectometry, scattering
I methods including X-ray, neutrons and light, computational
simulations).
Several
service groups, which are related to the different departments
of the institute have been established including analysis
of polymers, polymer spectroscopy (NMR, optics), physico-chemical
characterization, Xray analysis, electron microscopy, mechanical
properties and computer services.
The Institutes origin is closely related to the University
of Mainz, which has been a center of basic polymer research
since 1945 with Profs. G.V. Schulz (Physical Chemistry), W.
Kern (Organic Chemistry) and H. A. Stuart (Molecular Physics)
as the founding fathers of polymer research at Mainz. A center
of excellence (Sonderforschungsbereich) "Chemistry and Physics
of Macromolecules" was established in 1969 and supported for
a long time (18 years) by the German Science Foundation (Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft). The foundation of the Max-Planck-Institute
for Polymer Research at Mainz in 1983 on the campus of the
Johannes Gutenberg University thus continues a living tradition.
Today the connections with the University are not only reflected
in the high number of Diploma (20) and Ph.D. (90) students
but is also manifested in cooperative research projects in
the framework of the "Center of Material Research" (Materialwissenschaftliches
Zentrum), which is supported by the State government of Rheinland-Pfalz
and by the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology. The
institute is also part of the center of excellence 262 "Glassy
State and Glass Transition of Non Metallic Amorphous Materials,"
which is supported by the German Science Foundation.
Cooperation with industry plays an important role, above all
in projects of the materials research program of the Ministry
of Science and Technology. This ministry also supports cooperation
with German and European Research Centers, like ILL Grenoble
(France), KFA at Julich (Germany), Saclay (France) and DESY,
Hamburg (Germany). The scientific reputation of the institute
is reflected in the large number of foreign visiting scientists
(40 at present), and by the fact that about 50% of the Ph.D.
students have joined the institute coming from universities
other than Mainz, demonstrate that the institute is taking
on the important task of educating junior scientists in the
field of polymer research.
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