SKM 2021 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 6: Soft Matter (joint session CPP/DY)

DY 6.1: Invited Talk

Wednesday, September 29, 2021, 10:00–10:30, H3

Chemically Fueled Out-Of-Equilibrium Self-Assemblies and Autonomous Material Systems — •Andreas Walther — Department of Chemistry, University of Mainz

Living self-organizing systems operate far-from-equilibrium and maintain functions by constant energy dissipation in feedback-regulated adaptive steady states. In stark contrast, man made self-assemblies are typically oriented towards equilibrium or deep metastable states.

Some of the next steps in self-assembling systems are to approach multicomponent co-assembling systems, and to master temporal behavior as well as complex adaptation mechanisms. The latter require new types of internal control mechanisms, such as kinetic control over opposing reactions (built-up/destruction), the integration of feedback mechanisms, or the use of energy dissipation to sustain structures only as long as a chemical fuel is available. This ultimately goes along with a transition towards out-of-equilibrium complex systems, in which multiple components self-assemble dynamically in a non-linear and adaptive fashion.

In this talk I will present two conceptual pathways towards out-of-equilibrium systems, (i) driven environments and (ii) driven structures, which allow to program self-assemblies and materials with lifetimes and programmable steady state dynamics using feedback mechanisms and conversion dynamics of chemical fuels. This will be showcased for different self-assembling systems (polymers, peptides, DNA), and the connection to hydrogels and photonic materials demonstrates possibilities for new horizons in materials science.