Nanoforum - Nanotech Regulatory Document Archive

13.2. National programmes and projects
The Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) is Slovakia’s foremost institution for the
promotion and support of basic, strategic and applied research. The Academy’s
primary mission is the advance of knowledge and understanding of the nature and social
sciences. In fact, the Academy provides support to the demands of the scientific
community in Slovakia.
Since the scientific community in Slovakia only represents a small fraction of the
world community, scientific endeavours of the SAS are undertaken in close
collaboration with current scientific activities abroad. The SAS principally supports
those scientific and scholarly disciplines which attain international levels and which
are deemed necessary for the advancement of Slovakia and its international
aspiration.
There are results of this support. The SAS has concluded co-operative contracts
with partner institutions abroad supported by 53 inter-academic agreements. The
SAS also has recently installed the NANOSMART Centre of Excellence in
Nanomaterials. Around 60 researchers, from the SAS institutes on Materials Research,
Inorganic Chemistry, Experimental Physics, Geotechnics, Materials and Machine
Mechanics, Physics, and Electrical Engineering, collaborate in it. Research topics are
mainly dedicated to ceramic nanocomposites and metallic materials, and
mechanical, magnetic, superconducting, semiconducting, electric properties and
water treatment.
The main activities on nano are the following:
• Multifunctional ceramic nanocomposites based on Si3 N4 powders exhibiting a
self-diagnostics of defects and improved properties at room and higher
temperatures.
• Nanostructural materials for construction applications having ultrahigh
strength combined with a lightweight (aluminium alloys), excellent thermal
conductivity (copper alloys), or biocompatibility (titanium alloys).
• Unique magnetic nanomaterials based on Fe, Ni, Co with magnetic
nanoparticles in metallic or insulating matrix, exhibiting very low
coercivity, high saturation magnetisation, low losses, high magnetoresistance,
as well as self-assembled media for magnetic data recording,
materials for sensoring, etc.
• Superconducting nanomaterials (e.g. Y2 BaCuO3 nanoparticles embedded in
Yba2 Cu3 O7 single crystals, or Nb, NbN nanoparticles embedded in metallic
matrix).
• Non-magnetic semiconducting nanoparticles in insulating matrix showing
electron Confinement.
• Model metallic (Cu, Pb, Gd, Dy) and ferritic nanoparticles, and sulfitic
nanoparticles used for absorption of toxic metals from wastewater.
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