The J. Stefan Institute home page
is located at http://ijs.muzej.si/
Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology (K1)
The activity of the Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology
is directed into three main spheres of interest:
In the field of inorganic fluorine chemistry the department has been
active already for the last forty years. The production of
elemental fluorine on the pilot plant scale was developed together
with its purification to the spectroscopic quality. In the field of
noble gas chemistry new methods were developed for the syntheses of
binary fluorides of noble gases. Here, the preparation of krypton(II)
fluoride with the capacity of 1 g KrF2 per hour, using photosynthesis in
liquefied fluorine with UV light, should be mentioned. The whole set of
xenon(II) and xenon(VI) fluorometalates was isolated and
characterized in this laboratory. Recently the series of new thermally
unstable binary fluorides (e.g. NiF4, CuF3 etc.)
was isolated in addition to some other new binary fluorides
(e.g. NiF3, AgF3, Ag3F8, CrF4
etc.). This work was performed in the cooperation with Department of
Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley (Emeritus Professor Neil
Bartlett). The above mentioned binary fluorides are very strong oxidizers
already as the neutral species, while their cationic species especially of
NiF4 and CuF3 could surpass KrF+ salts,
the strongest known oxidants up to now.
In the field of inorganic materials on the basis of fluorine a whole
set of hydrazinium(1+) and hydrazinium(2+) fluorometalates
was isolated and characterized. Besides the efforts were concentrated
in the syntheses of environmentally friendly freons and synthesis of
fluoride-oxide superconducting material.
In the field of technology, modelling of flue gas desulphurization
plant based on SO2- into-droplet absorption model was developed.
The model was tested on the pilot plant measurements performed on a
flue gas desulphurization pilot plant designed for up to 18.000 Nm3 per
hour with maximum SO2 concentrations of up to 7.500 mg/Nm3.
The pilot plant is able to be dismantled and erected at the client's location.
Further, calibration and modelling of different chemical,
biochemical and other processes using artificial neural networks
(ANN) and other chemometric techniques are studied. Optimization of the
processes is performed using Genetic Algorithms (GA). The advantage
of GA optimization technique is that it thoroughly and randomly searches
all of the measurement space and at the same time quickly iterates towards
the best solution.
The department is engaged in several research projects with
secondary school students. Further, in 1992 the School of
Experimental Chemistry for secondary school students was established
at this department. The school is organized as one-week courses. The
programme of the courses comprises of various interesting experiments in
the field of general and inorganic chemistry performed by the students
themselves. Through these experiments they learn basic laws in chemistry
and find chemistry an interesting and "friendly" subject. In the school
year 1993/94 over 30 such courses will be performed.
It has been always characteristic of this group that about 30-50% of
its financial support has been obtained directly from industry. Therefore,
the group is very much engaged in the solving of the technological
problems of the local industry, mostly in the solving of
ecological problems and optimization of the production.
The group is also in close cooperation with many scientific institutions
from all over the world in the field of synthetic fluorine chemistry.
![[IMAGE: pilot plant]](/images/ijs-dept-k1.gif)
Research projects
financed by the Ministry of Science and Technology
(titles in Slovene language)
Contact:
Prof. Boris "Zemva