In last 5 years the project leader has five invited lectures at International conferences and workshops. The topics of the talks were related to analytical electron microscopy and the use of this method during the research and development of modern photocatalytic nanomaterials. The listed lecture was presented at 4thIC4N (International Conference from Nanoparticles and Nanomaterials to Nanodevices and Nanosystems), which was held in Greece on June 2013 as an invited lecture. The lecture was devoted to self-assembly and formation of hierarchical structures based on TiO2 and design of photocatalytic microreactors using such structures studied with different electron microscopies and microanalytical techniques. (http://www.uta.edu/ic4n/inspeaker.php)
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 26850087During the time of the project three young researchers (PhD. students), under the scientific and academic guidance from project leader, were actively involved in the research work. Among them the first one that finished PhD study was Barbara Horvat. She studied the nucleation and growth of TiO2 nanoparticles during the hydrothermal synthesis. She studied morphology, size and growth of hydrothermally prepared anatase crystals. From HRTEM images shape of crystals was reconstructed. Small, irregular blocky anatase nuclei become rod-like at higher temperature, stretching along one of the 101 directions. Crystals further develop into wedge-shaped ones with almost absent base pinacoids. In the final stage, crystals evolve into equilibrium shape: plain tetragonal bipyramids. During her work she published two papers. In May 2014, before the formal end of his funding contract the second PhD student, Matic Krivec, defended his PhD thesis. (KRIVEC, Matic, Synthesis and characterization of nanoparticles, nanostructures and micro-devices based on photocatalytic TiO2 : doctoral dissertation, Ljubljana, 2014. X, 104 p., ilustr. [COBISS.SI-ID 274190848]. The third student, Anže Abram, will continue to work in the field till the end of his study in the first half of the 2016.
D.09 Tutoring for postgraduate students
COBISS.SI-ID: 269004544Project leader was in organisation committee of the JEP 2013 European Symposium on Photocatalysis which was one of the most important events in the year 2013 connected to the area of photocatalysis. The conference was organised by University of Nova Gorica. http://photocatalysisfederation.eu/jep2013/homepage.html
B.01 Organiser of a scientific meeting
This work was selected in October 2014 and classified as "Excellent in science for the year 2014 from Research Agency of Republic of Slovenia. Young researcher presented his thesis on the occasion of Inovation Forum, held in Cankarjev dom 14th of November 2014.
E.01 National awards
COBISS.SI-ID: 26981415Direct cooperation with industrial partners (Cinkarna Celje and Impol Slovenska Bistrica) was aiming to transfer the knowledge acquired through research work to the industry and to develop new products. During the implementation of the project the team from the institutes (including especially young researchers) was in constant contact with both industries through the visits and talks on how practically transferred the knowledge in an industrial environment. Thus, in the case of Cinkarna Celje we found that the specific functionalized surface of zinc can have a self-cleaning properties by using the lotus effect (superhydrophobicity) as self-cleaning due to the photocatalytic effect. We have also proposed a modification of hydrothermal process using superheated steam. Aluminum plates, which are in the production of Impol could be coated with TiO2 and applied to an integrated photocatalytic – solar collector reactor for the treatment of gray water and at the same for heating water.
F.06 Development of a new product
COBISS.SI-ID: 28092967