News

1. Roman Šink, Ema Valentina Brovč, Stane Pajk, Janez Mravljak, Stabilization of pharmaceutical compositions comprising polysorbate, EP3714902 (A1), European Patent Office, 30. 09. 2020.

1. Luka Drinovec, Griša Močnik, Photo‐thermal interferometer, EP3492905 (B1), European Patent Office, 29. 04. 2020; US10768088 (B2), US Patent Office, 8. 09. 2020.

As the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic caused a general lack of medical protective equipment, the researchers from “Jožef Stefan” Institute, including associates of our department, decided to look into the option of using ionizing radiation to sterilize used masks and allow their reuse. The results showed that facepiece respirators type FFP2 and FFP3 can be sterilized by Gamma irradiation and electron beam irradiation. This method of sterilization preserves the mechanical and chemical characteristics of masks and does not harm the efficiency of aerosol particle filtration. While 20 kGy radiation does cause the loss of the polypropylene membrane filters static charge, re-application of the charge brings the filtration efficiency back to the previous level. Masks can be sterilized up to two times using this method. The research was carried out by Luka Pirker, Anja Pogačnik Krajnc, Anton Gradišek, Andreja Jelen, Maja Remškar, Igor B. Mekjavić, Janez Kovač, Miran Mozetič, Luka Snoj, Jan Malec and Vladimir Radulović, and the results were published in the Journal of Membrane Science in the article entitled Sterilization of polypropylene membranes of facepiece respirators by ionizing radiation.

Abdou Hassanien from the F5 Department of Jozef Stefan Institute has published, in collaboration with Biao Zhou and Akiko Kobayashi from Nihon University, Tokyo, Japan, an article in the Journal of Advanced Electronic Materials titled Spontaneous Antiferromagnetic Ordering in a Single Layer of (BETS)2GaCl4 Organic Superconductor. The fabrication of such well-defined and atomically clean interfaces between materials of different orders are of fundamental interest to engineer novel functionalities and to study emergent phenomena in condensed matter physics. The paper illustrates the interplay between electronic orders of hybrid mix of nested antiferromagnetic molecular chains and superconducting molecular stripes at the single layer limit. Results of low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy have shown that low level vibronic and magnetic excitations that dominate the higher temperature phase are absent below Tc which point to their cooperative existence and possible renormalization to mediate superconductivity in such d-wave superconductors.

1. Tilen Knaflič, Quantum magnetism in ????????‐electron molecular systems: doctoral dissertation, Ljubljana, 2020 (mentor Denis Arčon).

2. Jože Luzar, Design and properties of lime‐cement structural injection grouts for strengthening of heritage buildings: doctoral dissertation, Ljubljana, 2020 (mentor Janez Dolinšek).

3. Luka Pirker, Electrical, optical and structural properties of low‐ dimensional materials based on tungsten: doctoral dissertation, Ljubljana, 2020 (mentor Maja Remškar).

4. Anja Pusovnik, Flow of light in metamaterials based on nematic fluids: doctoral dissertation, Ljubljana, 2020 (mentor Miha Ravnik).

5. Mitja Zidar, Analysis and prediction of aggregation and degradation in protein‐based biopharmaceuticals: doctoral dissertation, Ljubljana, 2020 (mentor Miha Ravnik).