The Department of Macromolecular Physics was established as the Department of Polymers in 1974. At present, our department is conducting research in the fields of physics of nanomaterials, physics of polymers and macromolecular solids and theoretical physics.
News
At the conference XII iPlasmaNano, which was organised on the French island Guadeloupe, O.Kylián gave an invited lecture "Magnetron-based gas aggregation sources of nanoparticles: state-of-the-art, challenges and future perspectives".
At the 13th Asian-European International Conference on Plasma Surface Engineering in Busan, Korea, Professor Andrey Shukurov gave an invited lecture on 'One-Step Sputter-Driven Synthesis of Metal Nitride Nanoparticles and Nanofluids'.
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Marco Tosca, Ph.D. student from the group of Prof. Shukurov, won the Best Poster competition at the 3rd International Workshop on Proton-Boron Fusion held in Prague and Dolní Břežany, Czech Republic. Marco was awarded the first prize for the poster ‘Nanoparticles of Plasma Polymerized Hexane Targets for Laser- Driven Proton-Boron Fusion’.
Our warmest congratulations!
An original system for the effective preparation of bi-metallic nanoparticles was developed at our department, which uses a cylindrical post magnetron. The results of the study of this new source of nanoparticles have just been accepted in the journal Vacuum.
Details can be found here.
The mechanism of formation of nanoparticles in gas aggregation sources is still the subject of controversy. In the just-published article in Surface and Coatings Technology, prepared in close collaboration with the University of South Bohemia, we show that dimers sputtered from the magnetron target play an important role in the initial stages of the formation of nanoparticles.
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Since the 1st of October, a new international GAČR project has been running in our department under the leadership of Dr. Ryabov. This joint project with Osnabrück University is focused on the study of cluster-mediated driven transport in highly populated periodic structures.
Members of our department participated in large numbers in the 11th International Workshop on Functional Nanocomposites held in Plön, Germany. Besides other oral and poster presentations given by our department members, Dr. J. Kousal delivered an invited talk entitled "Exploration of the gap between classical and plasma polymers: fundamental and applied science opportunities".
When large numbers of active Brownian particles swim towards the same place, they get stuck and form a colloidal crystal. However, what happens if these particles see their target with a time delay? Our paper published in EPL shows that in such a case, the crystal with increasing delay undergoes several unexpected and fascinating dynamical phases, which you can see here.
We heartily congratulate our students on the successful defense of their bachelor's, master's and dissertation theses.
We wish them success not only in the field of science but also in daily life!
Is it possible to controllably change the shape of niobium nanoparticles produced using a gas aggregation source? We tried to answer this question experimentally and theoretically in the article A multi-timescale model predicts the spherical-to-cubic morphology crossover of magnetron-sputtered niobium nanoparticles, which was just published in the journal Applied Surface Science.
Our article Challenges in the deposition of plasma polymer nanoparticles using gas aggregation source: Rebounding upon impact and how to land them on a substrate has just been accepted for publication in the journal Plasma Processes and Polymers, in which we demonstrate that during the deposition of nanoparticles (especially plasma polymer ones), reflection of these nanoparticles may occur. We show under what conditions this phenomenon takes place, how to avoid reflection if needed and how to ensure that the nanoparticles adhere to the substrate. These results pave the way for broader utilization of plasma polymer nanoparticles.
Jan Prokeš participated in the development of a new method for determining the electrical conductivity of powders under defined pressure which is suitable for characterizing materials that cannot be compressed into standard tablets. In cooperation with other Czech research institutes, this method was used to study carbonized leather waste. This research, on the basis of which a series of articles has been published (#1, #2, #3, #4), opens up the possibility of processing leather waste into useful conductive materials with high application potential, for example as material in the electrodes of supercapacitors used for energy storage.
