The department's professional activities are very broad and include mainly research in the field of:
- environmental protection in industry,
- analytical chemistry,
- materials chemistry,
- physico-chemical processes.
In the field of environmental protection in industry, the department's staff deals with the following topics:
- characterization of suspended particulate matter transport using neutron activation analysis
- air pollutant dispersion from industrial sources, transport and domestic heating
- the use of mathematical models and special monitoring (stations on former mining towers, drones and airships, biomonitoring)
- measurement of the transboundary transport of air pollutants
- optimisation of the energy recovery process
- research into the possibility of using different types of low-cost additives to reduce the content of selected pollutants from the flue gas stream such as SO2, HCl, HF, NOx, PCDD/F, PCBs
- intensification of the biogas production process with a focus on increasing the methane content
- research on the purification of biogas from anaerobic digestion of bio-waste
- Research on the possibilities of biohydrogen production by dark anaerobic digestion of bio-waste
- Research on the process of hygienization of sewage sludge from pathogenic microorganisms
In the field of analytical chemistry and materials chemistry, the department conducts research on:
- Photocatalytically active materials based on g-C3N4
- Photocatalytically active composite materials based on clays and metal oxides and sulfides
- Graphene, graphene oxide based composites for photocatalytic applications.
- Clay/Ag based antibacterial materials
- Conducting polymers based on polyaniline and polypyrrole
- Conductive polymer/phyllosilicate composite materials
- Preparation and analysis of nanomaterials
- Sorbents based on hydrotalcites and fine-grained metallurgical wastes
- Electrochemical processes in ionic melts and concentrated solutions
- Research on adsorption of gases and vapours on carbonaceous materials
- Study of solid-gas phase reactions with subsequent detection of the resulting products
- Preparation of model blast furnace slag samples by sol-gel method
- Spectrophotometric determination of phosphate and copper in aqueous solutions
- Profile analysis of metal surface layers
- Ecotoxicity tests of aqueous leachates
- Rheology of non-Newtonian liquids
- Multiphase hydrodynamics of liquid-gas and liquid systems
- Microprocess engineering
- 3D printing of microfluidic devices
In the field of physicochemical processes, the department is the only department in the country that has been involved for a long time in the:
- Acquisition, refinement and verification of thermophysical, thermodynamic and kinetic data in the low temperature (from -120 °C) and high temperature range (up to 2000 °C).
- Studying a wide range of materials, e.g. METAL ALLOYS: advanced steels, lower order Fe-C based alloys, solder, Mg alloys, Ni-based superalloys, Ti(Ni, Al,...) alloys, cobalt alloys, magnetic materials, Ta-Mn, Al, Zr and other non-ferrous and ferrous alloys; OXIDIC SYSTEMS and other inorganic materials: slags, glasses, ceramics, composite materials; BIO MATERIALS: waxes, oils.
- Measurement of viscosity, surface and interfacial tensions of metallic and other inorganic materials (especially oxide materials).
- Calculations of thermophysical, thermodynamic and kinetic data using sophisticated thermodynamic and kinetic software for a comprehensive and accurate description of material behaviour.
- Creation of actual/internal database of thermophysical, thermodynamic and kinetic data of the above specified materials.
- Improving the thermodynamic and kinetic databases used in thermodynamic and kinetic software.
- Using the data to simulate and optimize the casting and solidification process and to optimize other processes.