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Profile : UGENT
Research group description :
The Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry (http://www.we06.ugent.be) of the Ghent University, Belgium, is a research and education centre where interdisciplinary activities are undertaken in the field of inorganic and physical chemistry, based on the cooperation of chemists, physicist, theoreticians and engineers.The department integrates the expertise of about 100 scientists and technical staff and has access to important technical facilities.
The Research Group on Solid State Chemistry ( http://www.we06.ugent.be/SCRiPTS/) has activities in the broad field of solid state chemistry related to the synthesis, properties and applications of inorganic and ceramic materials. The research group forms part of the interdisciplinary Coordinator Centre for Materials Science and Engineering (CMSE) (http://cmse.ugent.be).
The group (consisting of 12 PhD researchers, 2 postdocs, and 3 master students) performs research into solution based synthesis routes for the preparation of ceramic coatings (Prof. I Van Driessche) and nanoparticles (Prof. K De Buysser).
The main focus of the research is the development of water-based, environmentally friendly precursor solutions that can be used to directly deposit ceramic coatings on top of selected substrates or that can be transformed in so-called precursor sols, i.e. aqueous suspensions of preformed ceramic particles before further processing.
We study the coordination and sol-gel chemistry involved in the formulation of the solutions and sols and investigate their colloidal stability. “Smart chemistry” is used to reduce the temperatures and timeframe and thus also required energy input for synthesis. The lab is equipped with multiple set-ups for ink-jet printing and dipcoating on small to medium sized substrates.
The different stages of the production process : (1) preparation of stable precursor solutions or sols, (2) applying the precursors on the substrate and finally (3) their conversion into a gel and a crystalline ceramic layer by controlled heating, are monitored using a variety of analytical and microscopical tools.
The water-based chemical solution deposition approach is used to prepare different functional (electro)ceramic layers. Research now mainly focuses on four groups of materials :
- TiO2 coatings and particles for self-cleaning, and corrosion protective layers on glass, tiles and steel. TiO2 related materials such as BaTiO3 are a new research topic.
- Superconductor architectures on metallic tape : deposition of the actual superconducting material (YBCO) and development of buffer layers (CeO2, La2Zr2O7, and new materials)
- Yttrium stabilized zirconia precursor solutions and suspensions for applications in thermal barrier coatings, and solid oxide fuel cells.
- Mesoporous organosilicate layers for use as low-k materials
More information on current research
Key scientific staff :
Prof. I. Van Driessche
