Departments

August 28, 2023

Dear Gregor,

Some of us have known you for decades, others months. But there is one thing we all share: we are infinitely grateful to you. You showed your exceptionality in your simplicity, your greatness in your wit.

We are deeply saddened by your untimely passing, however, beautiful memories of our joint endeavors remain. You will be forever in our hearts.

Your colleagues from D09

July 6, 2023

Members of the department at the successfully held Federation of European Zeolite Associations FEZA 2023 conference in Portorož. See you in three years at FEZA 2026 in Naples.

May 23, 2023

On May 22, the Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology hosted Dr. Thomas Douglas Bennett from the University of Cambridge, who inspired us with a talk entitled "Looking Beyond Crystallinity in Metal-Organic Frameworks."

March 2, 2023

Mojca Opresnik, an electron microscope operator and a colleague of the Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology, demonstrated for Znanoteh in the Delo newspaper how looking for comparisons in organic and inorganic samples can lead to interesting similarities (in Slovene).

March 2, 2023

PhD students Lucie Havelková, Alena Hašková and David Šorm from Charles University in Prague successfully completed a three-week internship in the Laboratory for Catalysts under the supervision of Dr. Sebastijan Kovačič.

For the first time, the National Institute of Chemistry announced the recipient of the grant for Janko Jamnik's basic research project. The recipient of funding for 2022 is our colleague Dr. Andraž Krajnc.

At the Institute of Chemistry, we promote a culture of good mentoring, which is very important for training top researchers. Therefore, we are particularly proud that this year's Best Mentor Award was given to Dr. Petar Djinović, a colleague of the Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology.

December 14, 2022

Prof. Nataša Zabukovec Logar has published an article "Metal-Organic Porous Materials - Quo vadis?" in the journal Alternator, in which the latest findings from the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities are presented in a way that can be understood by anyone with basic scientific knowledge (in Slovene).

The title was awarded for co-organising the 15th international energy storage conference ENERSTOCK2021 "Towards smarter solutions", which was held in Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana from June 9 to 11, 2021, in collaboration with Assoc. prof. dr. Uroš Stritih from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana.

As part of the "Science without Borders" series of events aimed at getting to know foreign researchers working at our institute, we travelled to Ireland this time. Our Irish colleague Dr. Ciara Susan Byrne informed us about the culture, tradition and gastronomy of Ireland as well as about her hometown Dublin and the Atlantic Technological University Sligo, where she comes from.

We are looking forward to welcoming you in person at the 9^th Conference of the Federation of the European Zeolite Associations to take place on 2 - 6 July 2023 at Portorož-Portorose, Slovenia. With the aim of establishing a strong programme, we would like to encourage you to submit your abstract by 30 November 2022, Monday and attend the conference in next July 2023.   To submit your abstract now, please click here 

FEZA 2023 Organizing Committee 
 

Tomaž Kotnik, a PhD student from the Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology, was awarded for the best oral presentation of his scientific contribution at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Slovenian Chemical Society, which was held on 21-23 September 2022 in Portorož, Slovenia.

The head of the department, Prof. Dr. Nataša Zabukovec Logar, is this year's recipient of the Pregl Award for Exceptional Achievements in the field of chemistry and related disciplines.

Tomaž Kotnik, a PhD student from the Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology, was awarded for the best presentation of his scientific contribution at the YOURHETCAT 2022 conference, which was held on 11-13 July 2022 in Szeged, Hungary.

Prof. Dr. Nataša Zabukovec Logar was elected to a three-year term as Secretary on the Executive Committee of the Council of the International Zeolite Association at the 27th International Zeolite Conference in Valencia in July 2022.

Next year we will host the European Conference FEZA 2023 (9th Conference of the Federation of the European Zeolite Associations). The event will be held from 2 to 6 July 2023 in Grand Hotel Bernardin Convention Center in Portorož-Portorose, Slovenia. The conference will be rounded as a five-day scientific event with plenary and keynote lectures, oral presentations, and poster contributions. The summer school will be organised as well. You are cordially invited to visit the event website: https://feza2023.org/en/

I perceive research work as a privilege

Prof. Dr. Nataša Zabukovec Logar, Head of the Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology at the National Institute of Chemistry, spoke for the Delo media about her work as a researcher (in Slovene).

The NPM-6 (New Photocatalytic Materials for Environment, Energy and Sustainability)/PAOT-7 (Photocatalytic and Advanced Oxidation Technologies for Water, Air, Soil and Surfaces) conference was held this year in collaboration with the National Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology from University of Ljubljana and Redox Technologies Inc. from Canada on April 4-7, 2022 at the National Institute of Chemistry in Slovenia. Local organizing committee:  Prof. dr. Nataša Novak Tušar (chair), prof. dr. Urška Lavrenčič Štangar (co-chair), dr. Albin Pintar, Prof. dr. Nataša Zabukovec Logar, Marjana Gantar Albreht, Suzana Mal, Dr. Andraž Šuligoj, Aljaž Škrjanc. Photographer: Mojca Opresnik (Photo galery)

Design and degradation of permanently porous vitamin C and zinc-based metal-organic framework

Metal-organic frameworks have demonstrated a great potential as drug delivery systems, but the biocompatibility of the MOF components, solvent and additives is often overlooked. A new bioMOF structure with permanent microporosity based on vitamin C zinc cations is designed and synthesised in a green solvent. Successful loading and release of a model drug urea from the pores and degradation mechanism of the framework in the aqueous media are demonstrated as well.

Prof. dr. Nataša Novak Tušar, Head of the Laboratory for Catalysts at the Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology, obtained a new Slovenian Research Agency program P1-0418 entitled Chemistry of Catalysts for Clean Air. The program started in January 2022.

About the important achievement of Gregor Mali and Andraž Krajnc also in an interviews published on the SiolNET, tromba.si and delo.si

Stabilization of perovskites within the metal-organic glass

Researchers Andraž Krajnc and Gregor Mali of the Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology (D-09) participated in an interesting study of the composites of lead-halide perovskites and metal-organic glasses.

Lead halide perovskites can exhibit bright, narrow band photoluminescence but have stability issues in polar solvents, which trigger formation of inactive phases and loss of lead ions. The authors of the study showed that the black, photoactive phase of caesium lead iodide can be stabilized by forming a composite with a glassy phase of a metal-organic framework through liquid-phase sintering. The photoluminescence of the obtained composite was at least two orders of magnitude greater than that of the pure perovskite. The glass effectively stabilized the perovskite so that about 80% of the photoluminescence was maintained even after 10,000 hours of water immersion.

Andraž Krajnc and Gregor Mali employed 133Cs magic-angle spinning NMR measurements to confirm the phase purity of perovskites included within the composites, and suggested that there exists a close surface contact between the perovskite nanocrystallites and the surrounding metal-organic glass. The work was described in an article published in Science.

Link: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abf4460

Among the most visible achievements in 2021, which are proposed for approval to the Scientific Council of Slovenian Research Agency by members of the Scientific Research Councils of individual sciences, is also an article of the Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology: https://www.ki.si/en/news/catalyst-for-air-cleaning-with-synergistic-effect/

Alenka Ristić participated in the workshop "Pan-European Clean Energy Transition: ways to strengthen transnational cooperation" on  January 19, 2022, where she presented the research work on energy storage at the Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology, the membership of EERA JP Energy Storage and the roles (RI provider and member of Selection Panel) in the Horizon2020 project StoRIES - Storage Reserch Infrastructure Ecosystem.

As part of the H2020 StoRIES project (Call H2020- LC-GD -2020), the Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology and the Department of Materials Chemistry provide industrial and academic researchers from Europe with access to research infrastructure (for the study of energy storage materials) such as XRD diffractometers, sorption analyzers, TPR/TPO/ TPD chemisorption analyzer, UV-VIS spectrophotometer, and AR-STEM, respectively.

Prof. Dr. Nataša Zabukovec Logar, head of the Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology, spoke about her work as a scientist in an interview for Radio Trieste A, in the show HEVREKA - Portraits of Female Scientists then and now (in Slovene). Broadcast was scheduled for January 17, 2022.

The Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology has become a member of SP3-Thermal energy storage (TES) at the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) Joint Program Energy Storage.

EERA JP ES Award at Enerstock 2021. More than 50 young researchers participated at the conference. The best Ph.D. student/post-doc contributions were evaluated by the Award committee and Dr. Salvatore Vasta, the coordinator of the JP ES SP3.

The 15^th Virtual International Conference on Energy Storage ENERSTOCK2021 with the theme "Towards Smart Solutions" was held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from 9 to 11 June 2021, hosted by the National Institute of Chemistry Slovenia and the University of Ljubljana - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. The conference was attended by about 250 researchers and experts from 28 countries from all over the world. At the conference, an impressive number of distinguished experts presented the latest scientific and technological achievements as well as future trends and prospects related to materials, applications and systems for thermal and electrical energy storage, power-to-gas or heat applications, climate change and other related disciplines.

In addition to two plenary lectures (dr. Andreas Hauer, ZAE Bayern, Germany and prof. dr. Henrik Lund, Aalborg University, Denmark) and five keynote lectures (dr. Wim van Helden, AEE INTEC, Austria; prof. dr. Claudio Gerbaldi, DISAT, Politecnico di Torino, Italy; dr. Emiliano Borri, University of Lleida, Spain; prof. dr. Halime Paksoy, Çukurova University, Turkey and dr. Petar Djinović, National Institute of Chemistry, Slovenia), participants had the opportunity to present their work in oral presentations and short oral poster presentations.
The contributions showed that the development of materials for thermal energy storage remains an important and urgent research area for further development of TES technologies.

Dry methane reforming in conventional and micro-channel reactor systems

Syngas is a platform mixture of hydrogen (H₂) and carbon monoxide (CO). By producing an appropriate ratio of H₂/CO, syngas can be directly utilized in the fine chemical industry. With a promising recycle of carbon as well as mitigation of greenhouse gases, further limitation of global warming can be efficiently achieved by implementing three important strategies: (i) effective carbon capture and storage (CCS), (ii) development of efficient renewable energy, and (iii) enhanced end-use energy products. CO₂ conversion represents an advanced step towards the production of high value-added products.

The combined effort of researchers from the Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology (D09) and Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, University of Ljubljana, was performed regarding the development of a micro-channel reactor system to study low-temperature dry reforming of methane.

The article can be found under the following link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2020.127498.