Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces

The Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (German: Max-Planck-Institut für Kolloid- und Grenzflächenforschung) is located in Potsdam-Golm Science Park in Golm, Potsdam, Germany. It was founded in 1990 as a successor of the Institute for Physical Chemistry and for Organic Chemistry, both in Berlin-Adlershof, and for Polymer Chemistry in Teltow. In 1999, it transferred to newly constructed extension facilities in Golm. It is one of 80 institutes in the Max Planck Society (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft).

Being part of the Max Planck Society, the institute examines nano- and microstructures specifically colloids in which many are found in nature. With discoveries, scientists create tiny apatite crystals in bones, vesicles formed out of membranes, pores in membranes for fuel cells and microcapsules as vehicles for medical drugs - all are larger than an atom, yet too small to be seen with the naked eye. The scientists at the Potsdam-based Institute endeavor to understand how they are composed and how they work in order to imitate behavior in new materials or in vaccines, for example. Understanding the function of these structures can also help to identify the causes of certain diseases that occur when the folding of membranes or the transport of materials in cells fails to work properly.

The Colloid Chemistry department, headed by Markus Antonietti, deals with the synthesis of various colloidal structures in the nanometer range. This includes inorganic and metallic nanoparticles, polymers and peptide structural units, their micelles and organised phases, as well as emulsions and foams. Colloid chemistry is able to create materials with a structural hierarchy through appropriate functionalized colloids. This creates new characteristics through the "teamwork" of the functional groups. With appropriate architecture, these colloids can fulfill very specialized tasks. Single molecular systems cannot do this, due to their lack of complexity. An example for this is skin: There is no synthetic material which is as soft and simultaneously so tear-resistant and yet is made mainly of water. The secret of this also lies in the interaction between three components (collagen, hyaluronic acid, proteoglycan). This unusual combination of characteristics is only made possible by forming a superstructure "in a team".