Basic facts about Centre NANOPIN
The Research Centre for Nanosurface Engineering "NANOPIN" has been established in 2005 under the Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic as a Centre of Applied and Oriented Research (Project No. 1M0577). The Research Centre is formed by five partners from academia and industry: the Advanced Technology Group (ATG), the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (IIC AS CR), the J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (JH IPC AS CR), the Institute of Chemical Technology, Prague (ICT Prague) and the Technical University Liberec (TUL), and it is chaired by Dr. Frantisek Peterka.
The Centre is focused on the complex study of unique photocatalytic properties of nanocrystalline photoactive materials (mostly titanium dioxide); the research of their practical utilization in the field of self-cleaning, anti-bacterial coatings, photocatalytic purification of water, air, contaminated soils, and solar energy conversion; and development of standard procedures for the evaluation of the photocatalytic and hydrophilic properties of these materials. NANOPIN is open and offering all kind of collaborations with both academia and industry partners being interested in the field of photocatalytic applications.
Properties of TiO2 photocatalyst
Titanium dioxide exists in a number of crystalline forms the most common of which are anatase and rutile. While its latter form is by far the most widely used pigment for providing whiteness and opacity to a number of commercial products for years, development of applications utilizing unique photocatalytic properties of nanocrystalline anatas form has started just recently.
These properties are based on the fact that upon ultraviolet iradiation (λ < 390 nm) titanium oxide exhibits photocatalytic activity through the action of conduction band electrons and valence band holes photoinduced from the crystal lattice of TiO2. In the presence of water and oxygen these species produce highly reactive radicals such as OH and O2- on TiO2 surface (case A in figure below). That enables the oxidative destruction of a wide range of organic compounds and biological species on their surface. In addition, these materials may also exhibit photocatalytically induced superhydrophilicity that converts the hydrophobic character of the surface to hydrophilic when exposed to UV light (case B in figure). This causes the formation of uniform water films on the surface of these materials, which prevents the adhesion of inorganic or organic components and thus retains a clean surface on the photocatalyst.
Hence these nanocrystalline photocatalytic materials may be deployed on surfaces of various substrates such as glass, ceramics or metals to provide layers that exhibit self sterilisation and self cleaning properties when they are exposed to the light. The commercial potential for such coatings are massive, including medical applications, architectural (particularly cultural heritage purposes, facade paints, indoor, wall paper, tiles, consumer goods etc.), automotive and food industries (cleaner technologies, non-fogging glass and mirrors, product safety), textile and glass industry, and environmental protection (water and air purification and disinfection).
