The Czech scientist named the new international award for nanotechnology research
The Fojtík-Henglein Prize was initiated by foreign research institutes and universities actively engaged in the new direction of nanotechnology research relating to method of preparation nanoparticles and nanostructures not chemically but a by new way using laser technologies. As no chemical ingredients are present in these nanoparticles nanostructures prepared by laser excel in their purity. Whereas this way of nanoparticle preparation was initiated by the pioneer work of Anton Fojtik and Arnim Henglein from (†2012) from the year 1992 and published a year later (Fojtik A., Henglein A.: Laser Ablation of Films and Suspended Particles in a Solvent: Formation of Cluster and Colloid Solutions, Ber., Buns.Phys.Chem. 97, No.9 (1993) 252), the new prize was named after these two researchers.
The scientific work in question has remained unnoticed for a long time. Only after 12 years, at the time when more advanced laser technology has been developed, this method of preparation of nanoparticles to be investigated by the teams at the Universities of Essen and Dortmund. And later on, also next research entities started to be active in this direction.
And how Prof. Anton Fojtík, one of the authors, describes the origin of this key publication? "In 1992, all the crucial facts and technologies related to the nanoparticle preparation were supposed to be known. Pulls radiolysis, stop flow techniques, and chemical synthesis in liquid system, in solutions, chemical dissolution of big particles to small nanostructures were used. We put the questions: What more left besides tuning of existing manufacturing technologies and developing clever applications? Could lasers be put to a good use? “, A. Fojtik says.
| Prof. Dr. Anton Fojtík | Diploma of the 1st prize laureat |
How foolish idea at that time! At the beginning of the 1990s, the development of laser technology enabled the pulse duration to be in the order of nanoseconds, and entry into the picosecond area was in the infancy period. Nevertheless at the Hahn-Meitner Research Institute in Berlin A. Fojtik with A. Henglein initiated the new method how to nanostructures prepare. „We did not expect our laser approach will bring anything revolutionary, so significant, and, above all, so many interesting applications, particularly, in the field of biomedicine. But there was a surprize waiting around the corner...Today, for example, high purity Fe/Ag magnetic nanoparticles that can be used as an active substance against HIV or can serve as a defence against gram-positive anthrax batteries can be prepared by this way," Prof. Fojtik underlines.
