Institute of High Pressure Physics

Nowadays, Global Warming & Energy Crisis is experienced in every country/state. It is a planetary-scale civilization threat, and breakthrough innovative concepts seem to be essential for their overcoming. New generations of energy storage facilities seem to be particularly important. The lecture presents the works of  X-PressMatter laboratory (NL10)  on 'glassy' batteries for electric energy storage and 'thermal batteries' for 'cold' and 'heat' storage. Both concepts are inherently associated with high pressures, from ~ 50 MPa (500 atm) to ~ 2 GPa. ‘Glassy’ batteries research is related to electrodes composed of nanocrystallites in the amorphous (glass), formed under high pressure and high temperatures. It is the ‘hope’ for extreme durability and avoiding  ‘critical resources’, such as Lithium.  The  barocaloric effect-based ‘thermal batteries’ are related to exploring the latent heat (DH) and entropy (DS) associated with melting/freezing phase transition on compressing and decompressing. The obtained  DS are 2-3x higher than the current 'record' – for processing neutral for the natural environment.  It can allow the design of qualitatively new heating, cooling, and air conditioning systems. It is worth noting that 1 kg of R134a- type fluids, commonly used in air conditioning, has the same harmful effect on the atmosphere as a TIR truck after 6 months drive..

Prof. Sylwester J. Rzoska from our Institute, Laboratory of Ceramics and Glass, X-PressMatter will give a talk on „The Great Energy Crisis & Global Warming - some innovative solutions based on high-pressure-related R&D” in the coming Thursday UNIPRESS seminar.

The seminar will be held on-line on Thursday, September 21, 2023 at 15:00. To get the link to join the seminar, please contact us at dyrekcja@unipress.waw.pl

There is currently no viable solution for a robust bioresorbable orthopedic implant that can effectively address critical bone loss and bear mechanical loads. Therefore the development of new materials and technologies for biomedical applications is of vital importance.

This issue will be discussed in the coming Thursday UNIPRESS seminar. Elżbieta Pietrzykowska from our Institute, Laboratory of Nanomaterials will give a talk on „Preparation of bioresorbable nanohydroxyapatite composites for orthopedic applications”.

The seminar will be held on-line on Thursday, August 24, 2023 at 15:00. To get the link to join the seminar, please contact us at dyrekcja@unipress.waw.pl

Nanoporous GaN has recently emerged as a potential alternative material for AlGaN in the cladding layers of nitride laser diodes (LDs) due to its high refractive index contrast to GaN, tunable with porosity.

In the next Thursday UNIPRESS seminar, dr inż. Marta Sawicka from our Institute, MBE Laboratory, will present the electrically pumped LDs with porous claddings and compare device characteristics with standard solutions. She will also present a novel concept of in-plane refractive index engineering involving selective area doping and material removal in the proces of electrochemical etching, that is proposed to fabricate photonic elements embedded inside the nitride structures.

The Seminar "Application of nanoporous GaN in nitride laser diodes” will be held on Thursday, July 27, 2023 at 15:00 on Zoom platform. To get the link to join the seminar, please contact us at dyrekcja@unipress.waw.pl

Development of societies and the world economy requires novel sources of cheap and clean energy. The Earth natural resources will suffice for 50-60 years and their use is burdened with leaving a significant carbon footprint.

In the next Thursday UNIPRESS seminar, dr inż. Andrzej Morawski from our Institute, head of the Superconductors Laboratory, will address the issue of energy storage focusing on "green" energy obtained from hydrogen. He will present a new construction developed by his team - a double-walled high-pressure hydrogen tank. The solution provides high density of stored energy and can find its application for mobile vehicles or backyard hydrogen storage systems. The hydrogen stored under pressure has a much lower unit price than liquid hydrogen, but its density is only slightly lower.

The Seminar “Hydrogen storage technologies at Unipress. Project summary and outlook” will be held on Thursday, June 29, 2023 at 15:00 on Zoom platform. To get the link to join the seminar, please contact us at dyrekcja@unipress.waw.pl