Virtual Workshop "Advances in Precision Carbon Nanostructures" in honor of Prof. Klaus Müllen's 75th Birthday

Virtual Workshop Attracts 300 Attendees Worldwide

On January 20th and 21st, 2022 about 300 researchers from all over the world gathered online to participate in our virtual workshop on Advances in Precision Carbon Nanostructures. Four sections gave sufficient room to approach the topic from various sides. A total of 20 invited speakers, coming from research institutions in Germany, China, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, and Switzerland, reported about the latest developments in their fields - discussing such issues like applicability, synthesis, nanoscience, precision, and non-natural materials.

But the aim of this workshop was also to celebrate the contributions of Prof. Klaus Müllen to this field. His ground-breaking research, for example, paved the way for synthetic light-emitting organic materials, such as OLEDs.

Most of the speakers have been long-time collaborators of Prof. Müllen and expanded his research into new directions or even new fields. To name a few from the workshop agenda:

• Sonopharmacology: How to active drugs by ultrasound
• Precisely controlled self-organization of molecular carbon nanostructures
• Nanodiamonds – From synthesis to quantum sensing in biology
• On-surface synthesis of atomically precise carbon nanostructures

Hence, this workshop could also be called a gathering of the “Müllen family,” to quote the guest of honor.

In his summary, Prof. Müllen pointed out the ongoing importance of fundamental research, the need for an open mind when material scientists rooted in chemistry define their synthetic toolbox, and the chances his field offers to provide solutions for major societal needs. Finally, he also encouraged the audience to “employ concepts of artificial intelligence which will help us to fill gaps of knowledge of materials science much faster and more comprehensively than by performing one experiment after the other.”

The meeting was organized by Prof. Xinliang Feng, TU Dresden and MPI of Microstructure Physics, Halle, and Dr. Ji Ma, TU Dresden. Both Prof. Müllen and Prof. Feng received in 2017 the Hamburg Science Award for their ground-breaking work on graphene nanostructures.