Nanooptics for cars, cleaning of air in cities with the help of photocatalytic paints or nanofilters for filtration of wine, all this was presented by Czech nanotechnology engineers on NanoDay in Pardubice which took place on Wednesday 12^th April in the hall of Jan Kaspar of the Regional Office.

“Mum, what kind of a big spider is this?“ a small girl points curiously at a giant dust mite. The Regional Office of Pardubice is being dominated by a giant plastic dust mite. “We wanted to show people who actually causes our allergic reactions and what anti-mite bedding with nanofabrics protects us from.“, explains the presence of the giant mite Jiří Kůs, the director of nanoSPACE and the chairman of The Nanotechnology Industries Association of the Czech Republic. The Czechs are world leaders in nanofibers, which don’t fight only allergies, they also help to smooth wrinkles or repair bones. Newly, they should help wine makers to reduce their production costs.

“Our nanofilters start to replace cellulose desks which are used today, and unlike them they don’t leave bad aftertaste. They can be used repeatedly, too. Usually up to 10% of the product is thrown away. That is going to be saved by our membranes.”, declares Jan Buk, Czech nanoengineer from Pardam, s.r.o. company. In the future nanofilters should be applied in filtration of beer.

But by far Czech nanotechnologies are not just products from nanofibers. “With the use of nanostructuring of the material surface, we are able to transform an ordinary plastic plate into a very high quality optics for homes, offices or cars. Such optics is significantly smaller, lighter, it is possible to effectively produce it in huge sets and it allows to make brand new designs and construction methods for production of lights.”, explains Martin Jotov from IQ Structures company. Such technology will enable production of for instance smaller but much more powerful lights for cars or flat eyeglasses.

“The fact that the Czechs are a step forward is also proven by the paradox that in February the European Commission announced a competition aimed at air cleaning materials with a goal to produce material which would decrease concentration of particles in air in cities with help of innovative materials. Such material already exists, though.”, declares Kůs. According to him, already two years ago we could notice an unusual sign “These walls clean air” on a noise barrier when driving through Barrandov (Prague). The wall was painted with photocatalytic self-cleaning paint containing particles of TiO₂.

“The results of measurements were more than positive, they unequivocally prove that the paint coat significantly decreased the concentration of both NO and NO₂. If we painted all the facades in Prague, it would become the cleanest city in the world.”, comments the discovery Pavel Šefl from Advanced Materials-JTJ.

“In the field of nanotechnologies, The Czech Republic belongs to the world’s cutting edge and we are able to put the results of these incredible innovations in place, to apply them in specific products which are successful in the market. Nanotechnologies are undoubtedly an industrial sector of the 21^st century, we have also included them in strategic documents of scientific research and development and if we keep supporting this industry, we will have unique opportunity to become its development leader and also to effectively connect top scientists with business.”, said during his visit of Nano day in Pardubice Pavel Bělobrádek, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Science and Research of the Czech Republic.

The NanoDay was organised by The Nanotechnology Industries Association of the Czech Republic as a part of the educational project for the support of Czech nanotechnologies “Czech is Nano”.