Here, you will find specific information on the project „“ („3DPartForm“), generously supported by the European Research Council (ERC) – funding period 01.04.20 – 31.03.26.

25.07.25: Great job, Michelle! Being a PhD in her third year, Michelle Vigogne has successfully published a newly developed test routine for swift identification of printing parameters in DLP printing of photopolymer formulations. The test will help both academia and industry to shorten the work flow from initial resins to final polymer material products. Based on a well-thought CAD model, the so-called step test enables screening of 24 printing parameter settings within one 3D print, while combining six exposure times with four different layer thicknesses between 25 and 100 µm at one exposure intensity. More info here. This paper marks the conclusion of work package 1 in the ERC StG 3DPartForm on the provision of tailormade 3D-printed microfluidic devices for emulsion and microparticle formation – the latter ones being the essential building blocks for our newly developed AM method towards supraparticles with local functionality.

02.01.24/01.02.24: Our ERC group is expanding! While Dr. Nikolai Liubimtsev is about to finish his 1-year postdoc, we are happy to have Zhihan He (formerly Freiburg University) and Dr. Shalu Gupta (formerly Meerut Institute of Engineering and Technology) aboard 3DPartForm. While Zhihan will work on functionally integrated macromers and crosslinkers for microgel design (the key building unit of our discontinuous hydrogel systems), Shalu will focus on the efficient demulsification of microdroplets that we commonly use as templates for polymer microgel design. Here, her goal will be to design a novel class of surfactants that efficiently degrade by external triggers.

14.12.23: A versatile material design concept towards integrated polymer materials based on adaptive-responsive microgels relies on their spatially controlled assembly. We now report on the fabrication of microgel sheets via covalent intercross-linking combined with spatial arrangement of microgels by a newly developed microgel aspiration platform. In detail, AAm- and NIPAAm-based microgels are fabricated by droplet microfluidics and tuned in size and elasticity to enable assembly via aspiration at a micro-holes bearing glass plate. Connecting this glass plate to a lithographically fabricated controller allows for actuating defined sections of the glass plate. With that, patterns of different microgels – and with that, multiple functions – can be combined within one microgel sheet. Most importantly, these sheets resist stirring, ultrasound treatment as well as swelling-shrinkage and thermal cycles. Congratulations, Niclas 🙂

PS: This concept is currently advanced by developing an assembly platform providing individual spatial control over microgels within interconnected sheets.

15.08.23: A key requirement for fabricating 3D microgel assemblies is a secured supply of tailor-made building blocks. We now report on the combination of parallelized emulsion droplet fabrication and droplet splitting in a single 3D-printed flow cell. This platform provides uniform polymer microgels at milliliter-scale in a reproducible fashion. Congratulations, Michelle 🙂

01.03.23: We are glad that the ERC project will be supported by Nikolai Liubimtsev, who has joined as a postdoc 🙂

His goal will be to implement the concept of assembly and disassembly on demand in hierarchical hydrogel assemblies, and with that address a driving demand in recycling multi-material composites.

Nikolai, good luck and have a successful time in the AG Thiele!

14.02.22: Our manuscript discussing first steps towards tailored supragels has been published in MDPI Gels (IF: 4.702) 🙂 Congratulations to Talika, Niclas, and Michelle!!! The open-access paper is available here. Thanks a lot to Martin Schumann (TU Dresden) for designing the TOC (cf. below).

10.11.21: We are glad to have a new PhD student aboard 3DPartForm: Michelle Vigogne joined the ThieleLab after successfully defending her master thesis in October! Warm welcome and all the best for your PhD despite the pandemic situation, Michelle 🙂

22.11.20: Despite the challenges of the Corona pandemic, we have been able to start our project in time, and I am glad – once again – to welcome Talika Alina Neuendorf and Dr. Elif Baysak as new colleagues in the ERC project „3DPartForm“. Good luck 🙂

17.02.20: Still 6 weeks to go before „3DPartForm“ starts – time to plan layout and content of a new ERC homepage to communicate results, provide OA publications, and share latest news on the development of next-generation additive manufacturing of polymer multimaterials.