A team of scientists of the Faculty of Chemical Technology participated in the creation of a new patent.
Chemist Dr.-Ing. Jan Macák works in the Centre of Materials and Nanotechnologies (CEMNAT) of the Faculty of Chemical Technology, the University of Pardubice. During his scientific career he added many successes to his score and once again he is behind another one. In cooperation with PARDAM s.r.o., he and his colleagues from the Faculty of Chemical Technology, University of Pardubice, have recently succeeded in developing a unique sorptive material based on silica fibres.
The young scientist led a research team consisting of three other employees of the Faculty of Chemical Technology - prof. Mr. Roman Bulánek, Ph.D., Ing. Eva Koudelková, Ph.D., and Ing. Luďek Hromádka. They worked together to develop a new process for the industrial production of SiO₂ fibres, which became the cornerstone of the patent. It is because these fibres have a high chemical and thermal resistance, a huge surface area (800 m² / 1 gram) and exhibit a mesoporous nature. All these parameters make fibres excellent sorbents.
Absorbing air humidity
Therefore, they can thus be used for absorbing unwanted humidity, which is an important process in many sectors, such as electrical engineering, food and chemical industries. They can also be easily and efficiently desorbed and re-used, which is another advantage.
"The new patent will help PARDAM s.r.o. in actual manufacturing practices to produce such a quantity of the material that covers their growing needs in relation to their customers. At the same time, the production process is optimized in such a form that the fibres produced have reproducible parameters and characteristics, regardless of whether one kilogramme or one tonne is produced," describes the innovation Dr.-Ing. Jan Macák of the Centre of Materials and Nanotechnologies (CEMNAT), the Faculty of Chemical Technology, the University of Pardubice, who together with a team from the company PARDAM s.r.o. stood behind its creation and brings its essence:
Applicable in archives, museums and elsewhere
"The purpose of this material is to meet the demand for sorption materials with high specific surface area, while compared to standard sorbents in the market the fibre sorbent is characterized not only by higher adsorption capacity (absorbs more water), but also by easy and less energy-intensive regeneration. All these features make it a material with a high added value. In practice this means that, for example, in environments where it is necessary to remove moisture from the air, such as archives, museums, special manufacturing facilities for electronics and other places, you will not need to change the sorbents so often and, in addition, it will be possible to re-use it after relatively easy regeneration."
There great hopes for the material to find its place in various catalytic applications (as a carrier of particles of precious metals), as a highly resistant battery separator, or special chemically and thermally resistant filter material. It is now manufactured on an industrial scale in modern production premises of PARDAM s.r.o. in Roudnice nad Labem using the centrifugal spinning technology, where the production process is the subject of the patent granted.
Development took three years
The path to the patent was not easy; it was facilitated primarily by the mutual cooperation between the two entities. It was also supported by the project Alpha if the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (No. TA04011557). "We worked for three years to develop this material. The cooperation took the form of regular production tests in the premises of the company PARDAM s.r.o., which we gradually expanded from the laboratory, through pilot to operational form, and also that of essential characterization, which was carried out here in Pardubice. Logically, both these parts are strongly linked and my job was to connect both types of activities and reflect the lessons learned from the characterization of fibres in the production," added Dr.-Ing. Jan Macák.
In the following period, the project team will not only focus on satisfying the needs and questions of customers, which will certainly appear during the commercialization of the fibres, but also on the widest possible application of the fibres in other fields.
Dr.-Ing. Jan Macák is a senior researcher at the Centre of Materials and Nanotechnologies (CEMNAT) of the Faculty of Chemical Technology, the University of Pardubice. He has authored or co-authored more than 80 scientific works, which have already been cited 10,000 times, most of which being focused on self-assembled nanotubes of metal oxides, e.g. titanium dioxide. In 2008, he defended his doctor's degree in materials science at FAU Erlangen in Bavaria. He then worked for several years in the nanotechnology industry. In 2014, he was the only one from the Czech Republic to receive financial support from the European Research Council (ERC) after succeeding with his project in the field of physics and materials sciences. His multidisciplinary project introduces a new concept of solar cells, which combines titanium dioxide nanotubes with suitable inorganic and organic chromophores. In 2015, he was awarded the prestigious award Neuron for scientists under the age of 40 for scientific excellence and in recognition of his scientific-research work, awarded by the Neuron Endowment Fund.
