Press Releases / Pressemitteilungen

New route into 2D materials: Research team produces ultra-clean MXenes with outstanding electrical performance

Joint press release by TU Dresden, the Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics Halle, and the Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) dated February 9, 2026

Published on Mon, 09 Feb 2026 in PRESS RELEASES

The image combines a model derived from a scanning electron microscopy image (left) with a snippet of the underlying crystal structure of a studied MXene featuring precisely controlled surface terminations. © B. Schröder/HZDR

An international team of researchers from TUD Dresden University of Technology, Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics Halle, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and partner institutions across Europe has developed a breakthrough method for producing MXenes – an important family of two-dimensional materials – with unprecedented purity and control. The new “gas-liquid-solid” process enables the synthesis of pure MXenes with uniformly distributed halogen atoms on the surface and a precisely tunable surface composition. Their method dramatically boosts their electrical conductivity and opens the door to high-performance electronics, sensors, and energy technologies.

2 million EUR to simplify the programming of computer systems: TUD researcher Jerónimo Castrillón-Mazo receives ERC Consolidator Grant

Published on Tue, 09 Dec 2025 in PRESS RELEASES

portrait photo of prof. Jeronimo Castrillon — Prof. Jeronimo Castrillon © M. Hahndorf for Collaborative Research Center/Transregio "Active-3D"

Jerónimo Castrillón-Mazo, Chair of Compiler Construction at the Faculty of Computer Science at TUD Dresden University of Technology (TUD), has been awarded one of the European Union's highly endowed ERC Consolidator Grants. His project, COMpilers for ExTreme Heterogeneity (COMETH), which will run for five years and receive EUR 2 million in funding, aims to develop a new generation of tools that will simplify the programming of increasingly complex computer systems for scientists, engineers, and other users.

Great Success: Three cfaed researchers are among the most cited worldwide

Published on Thu, 13 Nov 2025 in PRESS RELEASES

Three researchers affiliated with cfaed are among the world's most cited academics in their respective disciplines. This is one of the latest findings of the Highly-Cited Researcher Rankings, analyzed by the Institute for Scientific Information from the American company Clarivate Analytics. Over all, 11 TUD-own researchers and two stating TUD as their second affiliation are among the world's most cited academics in their respective disciplines. Nationally, TUD has reasserted its research prowess and once again positioned itself in the top group of universities in Germany.

For research into ferroelectricity: Prof. Thomas Mikolajick receives award from the American Physical Society

Published on Thu, 06 Nov 2025 in PRESS RELEASES

Thomas Mikolajick, Professor of Nanoelectronics at Dresden University of Technology (TUD) and Scientific Director of NaMlab gGmbH, has been awarded the James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials 2026 together with his colleague Sayeef Salahudduin from UC Berkeley. The American Physical Society is honoring his research on materials and components for microelectronics.

The prize is based on work carried out at NaMlab gGmbH. The TUD subsidiary conducts research in close cooperation with the semiconductor and microelectronics industry on new materials for micro- and nanoelectronics and on components based on them.

From complete disorder to near-perfect order: New research on complex systems in nature and engineering

Published on Thu, 19 Jun 2025 in PRESS RELEASES

Scientists at the Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed) demonstrate in a new study how systems can shift from disorder to near-perfect order with unprecedented abruptness. The research team of TUD Dresden University of Technology reveals with this study, published in Nature Communications, a novel class of transitions in coupled oscillatory units, termed "extreme synchronization transitions”, challenging our traditional understanding of phase transitions.

Phase transitions are fundamental phenomena emerging across natural and human-made systems – from ice melting and traffic jam formation to the magnetization of metals. They mark qualitative changes in the degree of ordering of system constituents. Understanding how and why these transitions emerge constitutes one of the cornerstones of research on complex systems in nature and engineering.