Grants started since 2021

Surface activity of heteroatom doped graphene derivatives
Frame: NKFI/OTKA
Proposal number: K143571
2022 - 2026

Graphene industry is globally growing due to the rise in demand for graphene from various applications. The global graphene market is projected to grow to USD 1,479 million by 2025 in spite of the COVID lockdown. Graphene is used as bulk or monolayer, applied in composites, paints, electronics, tires or energy storage devices by end-users as the automotive, aerospace, military or construction industry. In spite of this colourful palette scientists are far from complete understanding and exploitation of the endless potential of this material. In this project – based on our recent results with graphene oxide – we intend to synthesize S, N and P heteroatom doped graphene materials and study them in aquatic environment. Elucidating the interactions that influence the doped graphene – water interaction is relevant in all the aspects of the planned work. The structure developing in binary or ternary aqueous suspensions will be investigated at micro, nano, molecular length scales in order to better understand the rheological, fluorescent and electrocatalytic potential of these novel materials. Their ecotoxicity will be assessed by a multi-marker approach as the dynamically expanding application also raises the concern about their environmental impact. The amalgamated skills and competences of the team joining to this program enable a thorough and complex study applying classical synthethic and characterization methods as well as cutting edge techniques including time resolved fluorescence spectroscopy, solid state NMR, rheology, neutron scattering methods (the latter in international cooperation). The experimental work will be completed with quantum chemical calculations.

Multifunctional sustainable adsorbents for water treatment assisted with plasma technologies and for health protection from xenobiotics (CLEANWATER)
Frame: HORIZON-MSCA-2022-SE-01-01/HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-SE
Proposal number: 101131382
2024 - 2027

Contamination of drinking-water is an urgent global health concern, preferentially in rural areas, and is highly related to the poor and vulnerable population. This challenge requires a single, easy to handle and low-cost solution able to decrease the levels of pathogens, chemical and radiological hazards to tolerable levels in a single and simple pot (from a sorbent on a glass to a more powerful cold plasma technology). Furthermore, climate change, natural disasters and the actual war in Ukraine urges having available fast effective solutions to avoid the spread of waterborne epidemies and being exposed to unsafe levels of heavy metals or hazardous organic pollutants. The complexity of such contamination including organic/inorganic species, cationic/anionic species, different size and shape, etc., requires a multicomponent system and/or device, in the form of a tablet or monolith, able to tackle specifically each of these hazards at once. In addition, this multicomponent system, besides tacking the problem in water, can be prepared and/or modified to be biocompatible so that it can also be used as a dietary complement to mitigate/remove all these hazards in human body (as enterosorbent). Based on these premises, the main goal of the CLEANWATER project is the design and development of multicomponent sorbents prepared by the combination of safe materials (e.g., activated carbons, bone-chars, pectins, among others) able to eliminate these contaminants in drinking water in a single pot or in combination with cold plasma for complete destruction. Furthermore, this sorbent will be modified accordingly to be applied in human body as a dietary complement to remove these species once assimilated in the body.