Chinese chemical engineer Mingjun Xuan is Alexander von Humboldt guest researcher at DWI

Dr. Mingjun Xuan from China has been granted an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation fellowship and is a guest researcher in Andreas Herrmann's research group. The chemical engineer and his research will be sponsored from August 2020 for a period of 2 years. Mingjun Xuan focuses on the investigation of structure-property relationships in ultra-strong biomacromolecular liquid crystalline gels. Such structures can be applied in the field of biomedicine, such as drug delivery, biosensing, tissue engineering, among others.

The shortcoming of conventional  biomacromolecular materials is that they are brittle, weak, soft, and generally have a low overall mechanical strength. In the course of his previous research, Mingjun Xuan obtains great experience in producing materials with exceptional ductility, deformability and plasticity.

The overall aim of his project, which is funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, is to understand what the outstanding mechanical properties of these material complexes are based on. On this basis, Mingjun Xuan hopes to be able to produce even more robust, stronger, functional and adaptable biomaterials and biocomposites. The goal is to combine principles of synthetic macromolecular chemistry with the outstanding properties of biological materials. To this end, he will, on the one hand, chemically and structurally analyze existing biomacromolecular surfactant complexes. In a second step he will focus on the synthetic method and postmodification of the complexes to improve their mechanical properties.

Mingjun Xuan completed his doctorate in Chemical Engineering and Technology at the Harbin Institute of Technology (China) in 2015. Between 2013 and 2015, he gained experience as a visiting doctoral student at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS) and the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (China). He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at ICCAS and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC, Spain). Now he is working as a postdoctoral fellow in the group of Prof. Herrmann at DWI - Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials and at RWTH Aachen University. His current research interests focus on the design and construction of ultrasound sensitive materials and DNA organogels.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables highly qualified foreign researchers holding doctorates to carry out a research project of their own choice in Germany as part of a Humboldt Fellowship. The sponsored scientists and scholars choose the respective hosts themselves. The number of Humboldt fellows is therefore an important indicator of international contacts and the reputation of the institution. In addition to Mingjun Xuan, the DWI hosts the Alexander von Humboldt Fellow and chemist Dr. Ulvi Karaca, who is working in Stefan Hecht's research group in the field of photochemistry.