Natural organisms are well able to synthesize highly optimized composite materials by means of template controlled mineralization.
Examples are bones, teeth, pearls, shells etc.
This process is known as Biomineralization and is intensively studied as it is not only of interest for the understanding of the formation of natural materials but is also promising for materials science resp. Many basic underlying mechanisms of the template controlled mineralization in natural systems like for example molecular recognition, local supersaturation, complexation and the formation of molecular superstructures for the size and shape control were identified. In this project, amphiphilic polymers are synthesized to investigate their influence on the crystallization of inorganic matter. In a first stage, these polymers have model character to study the influence of the molecular architecture and pattern of functional interacting groups. Furthermore, functionalized polymer gels are used as static templates for mineral formation resulting in interesting hybrid materials like magnetic gels .