Nanoclay technology for improved barrier properties of polymers and paints, with other possible applications in odour control and delivery of active compounds.
Shape-memory polymers are stimuli-responsive materials. Upon exposure to an external stimulus, e.g. an increase in temperature, they have the capability of changing their shape.
In collaboration with surface physicists, the centre has recently demonstrated that it is possible to form self-assembled monolayers of such hydrogen-bonded low molecular weight compounds on metallic surfaces.
At the Academy research focuses on the preparation of polymer – silica nanohybrid materials, creation nanosorbents with the unequal functionality and textural characteristics.
Photochromic glasses used for example as ophthalmic glasses can be viewed as a collection of small (10nm) silver halide crystals doped with specific ions and suspended in an inert glass matrix.