University of Natural Ressources and Life Sciences, Vienna

The Institute of Physics and Materials Science (IPM) focuses on the study of micro- and nanostructure of materials and their influence on the physical and mechanical properties. Our aim is the fundamental understanding of biological, bio-inspired and technical materials and utilization of this knowledge in co-operations with partners from industry and research organizations in national context and abroad.

Many materials in nature and technology show particular properties due to their structure on the nanoscale. Structural principles from nature are often applied to technical materials in order to make use of their advantages. The Institute of Physics and Materials Science is pursuing such bionic approaches to develop and improve materials.

In cooperation with industrial partners mechanical properties of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) are increased by adding nanoscale fillers like Carbon Nanotubes (CNT) or Carbon Nanofibers (CNF). The efficient use of nanofillers is optimized by a surface functionalization specially adapted to the system. By means of different characterization methods and mechanical tests, correlations between structure and resulting properties are investigated.