The main research areas of the Department are based on various cold and thermal plasma treatment methods, various phase transformation techniques in solutions and dispersions, as well as on extensive analysis techniques available in the Institute. The main activities are the following:

• Preparation of functional bioactive materials (metal-containing essential complexes), micro- and nanoparticles to be applied e.g. as drug formulation, controlled (sustained) and targeted drug delivery, as catalyst supports, fillers, etc. The applied methods include plasma chemical synthesis, plasma assisted morphological transformation, crystallisation, spherical agglomeration, emulsion methods, granulation, coating and drying.

• Preparation of functional micro- and nanolayers on inorganic and organic substrates by various plasma chemical methods including DC and RF plasma spraying, magnetron sputtering, plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII or PI3) and fast atom beam (FAB) treatment.

• Plasma diagnostics by emission spectroscopy and Langmuir probe methods.

• Analysis of the functional micro- and nanoparticles and micro- and nanolayers by various methods available in our laboratory, including Inductively Coupled Plasma Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES), polarography-voltammetry, X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometry (XPS or ESCA), BET (Brunauer-Emmet-Teller) gas sorption analysis, Laser Diffraction (LDA) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) Particle Size Analysis, determination of zeta potencial, measurement of molecular weight of macromolecules (static light scattering, SLS), hardness, elastic modulus and wear determination by nanoindentation and nanoscratch methods, etc. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and X-ray Diffraction Analysis (XRD) are also available in the frame of research collaboration.

• Participation in higher (undergraduate and postgraduate) education.

• Participation in national and European research and development projects, solving industrial technological problems based on R&D contracts, according to specific needs and requirements.

Laboratories:

Thermal plasma laboratory                                  Photo

Surface and nanolayer chemistry laboratory           Photo   Publications

Metal complexes laboratory                                 Photo

Functional nanoparticles laboratory                       Photo