Christian Dreßler

Prof. Dr. Christian Dreßler

Contact:Faradaybau, Room F4009 Weimarer Straße 32 98693 Ilmenau (+49) 03677-69 3276 christian.dressler@tu-ilmenau.de

PhD student - M. Sc. Anam Sara

Contact: Curiebau, Room 307 Weimarer Str. 25 8693 Ilmenau (+49) 03677 - 69 3693 anam.sara@tu-ilmenau.de

PhD student - M. Sc. Jonas Hänseroth

Contact: Faradaybau, Room 3003 Weimarer Str. 32 98693 Ilmenau (+49) 03677 69 3687 jonas.haenseroth@tu-ilmenau.de

Master's student Johannes Laurenz Wolf

Contact: Faradaybau, Room 3003 Weimarer Str. 32 98693 Ilmenau (+49) 03677 69 3687johannes-laurenz.wolf@tu-ilmenau.de

Tasks in the project:

The project investigates solid-liquid interfaces at the atomic level using molecular dynamics simulations. Our main focus is on:

• Water interactions with III-V semiconductors, metal oxides and combined oxide/semiconductor systems (including pinhole defects).
• the structural nature of interfaces (amorphous vs. crystalline) and their hydrogen bonding dynamics
• Mechanisms of dissociative and non-dissociative water adsorption
• Initial stages of degradation and corrosion (triggered by H+/OH-)
• Energy barriers for atom removal and pinhole defect growth

These tasks aim to gain a deeper understanding of interfacial reactivity and stability, which is crucial for the improvement of materials for energy conversion and corrosion resistant applications.

Methods:

• Ab-initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) with CP2K (DFT, GPW method).
• Force fields with machine learning (MACE): basic model and system-specific fine-tuning.
• Structural modelling and visualization (e.g. layer model, dynamics of hydrogen bonds)