Polymers and silicon nanosheets – the best of two worlds


Now, together with Bernhard Rieger, head of the Department of Macromolecular Chemistry, Helbich has succeeded for the first time in history in coating silicon nanosheets with a polymer that protects them from degradation and, at the same time, from oxidation. This is the first nanocomposite based on silicon nanosheets ever.


"Our composite is special because it combines the advantages of both materials," says Tobias Helbich. "These polymer matrix materials absorb light in the ultraviolet region, thus stabilizing the silicon nanosheets, giving the composite material the properties of a polymer while maintaining the excellent optoelectronic properties of the silicon nanosheets themselves."