“4f for Future” Develops Rare Earth Compounds For High-tech Applications

Complex materials based on rare earths are important for many high-tech applications, for example for permanent magnets or in screens. The new Collaborative Research Center SFB “4f for Future” is now investigating the chemistry of molecular and nanoscale compounds of rare earths and their physical properties. The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) coordinates the network, in which the Philipps University of Marburg, the LMU Munich and the University of Tübingen are also involved. The German Research Foundation (DFG) will fund the interdisciplinary network from January 1, 2023 over four years with more than ten million euros.

Materials based on rare earth metals and their compounds are important for our modern high-tech society. However, the molecular chemistry of these elements is surprisingly underdeveloped. Recent advances in this area show that this is now changing significantly. In recent years, dynamic developments in the chemistry and physics of molecular rare earth compounds have pushed boundaries and paradigms that had previously been valid for decades.

Materials with unprecedented properties

“With the joint research initiative ‘4f for Future’, we want to build a leading global center that will take up these new developments and drive them forward,” says SFB spokesman Professor Peter Roesky from the KIT Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, describing the tasks of the new SFB. The researchers are investigating the synthesis routes and the physical properties of new molecular and nanoscale rare earth compounds with the aim of developing materials with unprecedented optical and magnetic properties, says Roesky.

This research is intended to significantly expand knowledge of the chemistry of molecular and nanoscale compounds of rare earths and advance the understanding of their physical properties with a view to new applications. The expertise of the KIT scientists in the chemistry and physics of molecular rare earth compounds is supplemented by the know-how of researchers from the Universities of Marburg, LMU Munich and Tübingen.

CRC/Transregio on Particle Physics enters the second funding phase

In addition to the new SFB, the DFG will also fund the SFB/Transregio “Phenomenological elementary particle physics after the Higgs discovery” (TRR 257) for another four years. The researchers at KIT (host university), RWTH Aachen University and the University of Siegen are concerned with gaining a deeper understanding of the fundamental concepts underlying the so-called “standard model” of particle physics, which describes the interactions of all elementary particles in a mathematically conclusive manner. This model was experimentally confirmed ten years ago with the detection of the Higgs boson. On the other hand, the Standard Model cannot answer questions such as the nature of dark matter, the asymmetry between matter and antimatter, or the reason why neutrino masses are so small. In the TRR 257, synergies are created to support the search for a more comprehensive theory, which extends the Standard Model to be approached from complementary directions. For example, new connections are being made between flavor physics and phenomenology at high-energy accelerators. The aim of the TRR 257 is to be a pioneer in the search for a possible “new physics” beyond the Standard Model.

SFB/Transregio on multiphase flows extended by another four years

In addition, the DFG is extending the SFB/Transregio “Turbulent, chemically reacting multiphase flows near the wall” (TRR 150) for a third funding phase. Such flows can be found in a variety of processes in nature and technology. These include forest fires, but also energy conversion processes in which heat, momentum and mass transfer as well as chemical reaction processes are influenced by the interaction between a fluid and a wall. Understanding these mechanisms and developing technologies based on them are the goals of the SFB/Transregio at the TU Darmstadt and the KIT. For this purpose, experiments, theory, modeling and numerical simulation are used synergistically.

Collaborative research centers are long-term research alliances of up to twelve years in which researchers work together across disciplines. They enable the processing of innovative, demanding, complex and long-term research projects.