Perspektywy educational monthly has published annual Engineering University Courses Ranking 2021. Our Biotechnology and Chemical Technology courses have been ranked as the best engineering university courses in their respective categories. Biotechnology course hold the title as the best Biotechnology course in Poland for the fifth year in the row, while Chemical Technology Course holds the title as the best Chemical Technology course for the ninth time in the row, keeping the title since the establishment of the ranking (since individual engineering courses are ranked).

The best (sorted by Impact Factor) articles authored by our Faculty employees in 2020 (last update: 31-12-2020):

1. A. Szuplewska, D. Kulpińska, A. Dybko, M. Chudy, A.M. Jastrzębska, A. Olszyna, Z. Brzózka, Future applications of MXenes in biotechnology, nanomedicine and sensors, TRENDS IN BIOTECHNOLOGY, 2020, 38(3), 264-279. IF: 13,747
2. R. Kotuniak, M.J.F. Strampraad, K. Bossak-Ahmad, U.E. Wawrzyniak, I. Ufnalska, P.-L. Hagedoorn, W. Bal, Key Intermediate species reveal the copper(II)-exchange pathway in biorelevant ATCUN/NTS complexes, ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION, 2020, 59, 11234-11239. IF: 12,257
3. L. Zhu, G. Borstad, H. Liu, P. Guńka, M. Guerette, J. Dolyniuk, Y. Meng, E. Greenberg, V. Prakapenka, B. Chaloux, A. Epshteyn, R. Cohen, T. Strobel, Carbon-boron clathrates as a new class of sp3-bonded framework materials, SCIENCE ADVANCES, 2020, 6, 8361. IF: 11,511

Perspektywy educational monthly has published annual Engineering University Courses Ranking 2020. Our Biotechnology and Chemical Technology courses have been ranked as the best engineering university courses in their respective categories. Biotechnology course hold the title as the best Biotechnology course in Poland for the fourth year in the row, while Chemical Technology Course holds the title as the best Chemical Technology course for the eight time in the row, keeping the title since the establishment of the ranking (since individual engineering courses are ranked).

Scientists from our Faculty have developed new solvent-less one-pot method of drug encapsulation in MOF-class materials (Metal-Organic Framework). Method is based on mechanochemical process which makes manufacturing of MOF-encapsulated drugs faster as well as cheaper, yielding drug@MOF composite. The advantage of such drug transport form over conventional forms is possibility of performing targeted therapy as well longer drug release (in weeks). Method has been developed by team of Prof. Janusz Lewiński: Daniel Prochowicz, PhD, Eng. and Jan Nawrocki, MSc, Eng. along with their colleagues from Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Science. The team have published paper in European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry in which they presented results of using Ibuprofen@MOF (obtained with new method) as a proof of concept which was released over the course of 14 days in the conditions simulating human organism. Article is highlighted an on the cover of an issue.

Link to the issue cover
Link to the article

Mechanochemistry - the field of research focusing on chemical processes induced by the mechanical forces experiences a renaissance with the significant role of Faculty of Chemistry researchers. One of the examples of such role is the newest publication of Prof. Lewiński's group entitled "Mechanoperovskites for Photovoltaic Applications: Preparation, Characterization, and Device Fabrication”, which has been published in Accounts of Chemical Research (IF = 21.7). It is the first publication from our faculty in this prestigeous journal with over 50 years of tradition, in which articles are usually reviews published on the invitation only policy and focuse on the recent achievements of authors – leaders in their respective fields.
Link to the article

Paweł Borowiecki, PhD, Eng. from the Chair of Drug and Cosmetics Biotechnology (Faculty of Chemistry, WUT) along with Prof. Wolfgang Kroutil of Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz (Austria), Prof. Johann Heider of Philipps-Universität Marburg (Germany) and Prof. Maciej Szaleniec of Jerzy Haber Institute of Catalysis and Surface Chemistry of Polish Academy of Sciences (Cracow, Poland) just published in Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis (IF=5.451) journal the article about chemoenzymatic synthesis of the optically active γ-aryl-γ-butyrolactones using microorganism cells and recombinant alcohol dehydrogenases. Developed method has an enormous industrial significance, as optically active compounds obtained through this method are very important building blocks used in drugs manufacturing.

We invite you to read the paper on the publishers website: ^©2020 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/adsc.201901483.

Faculty of Chemistry, WUT just became founding member of the consortium (led by French CNRS), which will hold international PhD studies in the field of emerginc battery technologies. Faculty of Chemistry along with over a dozen other Eruopean universities as well as research institutes and companies will educate 50 doctors over a 5 years span. Project DESTINY (no. 945357) just received funding from the European Union (under Horizon 2020 programme). It is the first cofinanced by EU project of co-held international PhD studies at Warsaw University of Technology.

In the newest paper published in Angewandte Chemie entitledDisclosing Interfaces of ZnO Nanocrystals Using Dynamic Nuclear Polarization: Sol‐Gel versus Organometallic Approach, Małgorzata Wolska-Pietkiewicz, PhD, Eng. and Prof. Janusz Lewiński, along with colleagues from Grenoble, achieved another milestone in the obtaining unique ZnO quantum dots for high technologies and nanomedicine applications. Using highly advanced DNP-NMR technique it has been unambiguously proven that QDs obtained with the Faculty of Chemistry WUT proprietary organometallic method OSSOM declasses QDs obtained with other, traditional sol-gel method, both in terms of stability, surface character and degree of ordering of the organic layer passivating inorganic ZnO core.

Link to the article

Article of Piotr Guńka, PhD, Eng. of Chair of Inorganic Chemistry describing predicting and synthesis of so-called „superdiamond” – carbon-boron clathrate which traps strontium atoms and that have unique physical properties – has just been published in the Science Advances (IF=12.804) journal. New "superdiamond" material is characterized by the hardness comparable to that of diamond and exchange of cations trapped in the anionic lattice vacancies allows to tune its electronic properties from semiconducting, through metallic to superconducting ones. Described compound was obtained under ca. 55 GPa pressure and ca. 2500 K temperature and is stable upon pressure decrease to atmospheric one and temperature decrease to the room one. Dr Guńka participated in developing model of the compound structure based on synchrotron X-ray diffraction during his scientific internship at Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science finances by the scholarship of The Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (Narodowa Agencja Wymiany Akademickiej, NAWA).

Link to the article and its popular science abstract.

The best (sorted by Impact Factor) articles authored by our Faculty employees in the present year (last update: 01-10-2018):

1. H. Zhang, C. Li, M. Piszcz, E. Coya, T. Rojo, L.M. Rodriguez-Martinez, M. Armand, Z. Zhou, Single lithium-ion conducting solid polymer electrolytes: Advances and perspectives, CHEMICAL SOCIETY REVIEWS, 2018, 46, 797-815. IF: 38,618
2. D. Kubicki, D. Prochowicz, A. Hofstetter, M. Saski, P. Yadav, D. Bi, N. Pellet, J. Lewinski, S.M. Zakeeruddin, M. Grätzel, L. Emsley, Formation of stable mixed guanidinium-methylammonium phases with exceptionally long carrier lifetimes for high efficiency lead iodide-based perovskite photovoltaics, JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, 2018, 140, 3345-3351. IF: 13,858
3. J. Szlachetko, A. Kubas, A.M. Cieślak, K. Sokołowski, Ł. Mąkolski, J. Czapla-Masztafiak, J. Sá, J. Lewiński, Hidden gapless states during thermal transformations of preorganized zinc alkoxides to zinc oxide nanocrystals, MATERIALS HORIZONS, 2018, 5, 905-911. IF: 13,183