The team combines researchers and PhD students from the Departments of Process Kinetics and Thermodynamics and Chemical Reactor Engineering and Dynamics of our Faculty. The team is highly experienced and has patented an original one-step preparation method of emulsions of varying degrees of structural complexity (simple emulsions and multi-row n-fold emulsions, so-called drops in drops), including concentrated emulsions, encapsulation techniques for therapeutics and other active substances, research and modelling of drug release and transport processes, including in the cancer environment. Research on the application of emulsions in medicine is conducted with external partners, including the Faculty of Biology of the University of Warsaw, the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the University of Oxford.

The team members have extensive experience in mathematical modelling of the behaviour of dispersed systems, including the prediction of the course of redispersion and coalescence processes of drops in laminar and turbulent flow using the population balance equation and computational fluid mechanics (CFD). The research also includes the development and mathematical modelling of liquids mixing in continuous reactors under laminar and turbulent flow conditions in a wide range of shear rates. The team is working with the Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology in Warsaw on new methods of recovering valuable metal elements and organic substances (including rare earth metals, uranium, and polyphenols). In the field of food and cosmetic emulsion, the team cooperates with industry.

 SERVICES OFFERED

- preparation of long stable emulsions with simple and complex structures simultaneously with the encapsulation process of active ingredients, including concentrated emulsions

- rheological analysis of single- and multi-phase liquid systems

- modelling of changes in emulsion properties resulting from processes of droplet redispersion and coalescence

- modelling of mass and heat transport processes with chemical reactions in gas and liquid systems with complex rheology

- modelling of drug transport and elimination in tissues

- studies of the structure, stability, physicochemical and transport parameters of dispersed systems, quantitative analysis, intensification of processes occurring in multi-phase systems - numerical simulations of fluid transport and mixing processes in continuous and dispersed systems

 RESEARCH EQUIPMENT AND FACILITIES

- tensiometers: SINTERFACE – Drop Volume Analyser DVA-1 (droplet volume (weight) method), Lauda – ring detachment method

- OLYMPUS optical microscope BX60 with camera and Image-Pro Plus microscopic image analysis software

- MCR-302 rotational rheometers (flow curves, oscillatory measurements), RheolabQC (flow curves and viscosity: 1–50,000 mPas)

- 48-processor computing station with ANSYS Fluent software

- homogenisers, rotor-stator disintegrators (IKA, CAT)

- immersion ultrasonic head (Sonics) – pulse mode operation

- Evolution 300 UV-VIS spectrophotometer

- Couette-Taylor flow contactor/reactor

- 3D printer (prints from light-cured resins)

Members

Prof. Ewa Dłuska PhD, DSc (ewa.dluska@pw.edu.pl) (Ewa Dłuska)

Univ. Prof. Magdalena Jasińska PhD, DSc (magdalena.jasinska@pw.edu.pl)

PhD Agnieszka Markowska-Radomska (agnieszka.markowska@pw.edu.pl)

Univ. Prof. Antoni Rożeń PhD, DSc (antoni.rozen@pw.edu.pl)

PhD Students

MSc. Janusz Kopytowski (Janusz.Kopytowski.dokt@pw.edu.pl)

MSc Patryk Skowroński (Patryk.Skowronski.dokt@pw.edu.pl)