Press releases | News

Glass objects which glow in the dark, glass containers that heat up and cool down, or glass control knobs and switches that eliminate viruses and bacteria by themselves – all this seems to completely contradict our everyday experience of what glass can do. And yet, it is now within reach. To create such functionalized and precision-molded glasses, research teams at Fraunhofer IKTS in Dresden have transferred their experience with ceramic processes to glass manufacturing.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS recently became a partner in the TWI Innovation Network (TWIIN), a European program to promote research and technology.

Our colleague Johanna Sonnenberg talks about her personal and professional involvement in the fight against microplastics, how an underwater vehicle is supposed to help, and what everyone can do to prevent pollution of the sea and from beaches.

On January 5th, 2022, Dr. Roland Weidl, head of the Battery Innovation and Technology Center BITC, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of IKTS Institute Director Prof. Alexander Michaelis. The contractual partners are Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering (KSOE). In the MoU, the cooperating parties agree on close R&D collaboration in the fields of hydrogen, fuel cells (especially SOFC), e-fuels and digitalization.

The joint project LEGIOPLAS, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), is developing a mobile measurement system for on-site analysis of Legionella contamination in drinking water.

Germany must become climate-neutral by 2045 – that is the target set by the German government's Climate Protection Act. This ambitious goal requires the transformation of energy generation to 100% renewable energy from wind, solar, hydropower and biomass. This energy generation, which will be more and more volatile in the future, requires stabilizing measures to ensure a secure energy supply. Electricity storage in batteries can enable this transformation and will become increasingly important. In the project “KeNaB-ART” (ceramic-based sodium battery with beta-aluminate for applications above room temperature), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is supporting the development of new ceramic sodium batteries for the storage of renewable energy in the funding initiative “Battery 2020 Transfer”.

Congratulations to Nadja Steinke on the Silicon Science Award 2021! With her dissertation entitled “Plasmonic sensor for the on-site detection of diclofenac molecules” she convinced the jury. The award ceremony takes place on December 8, 2021 during the 15th Dresden Sensor Symposium.

A defective heart valve is the second most common form of heart disease. Most cases involve a narrowed aortic valve, but often the mitral valve can also be affected. Prostheses significantly increase the life expectancy of those with the disease. While bioprosthetic heart valves have some advantages over me-chanical ones, they can become calcified relatively quickly, limiting the length of their useful life. A team of researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS is attempting to prevent such calcification with a new chemical pretreatment of the bioprostheses.

The global demand for water is increasing due to ever more intensive water use. At the same time, the usable water supply is becoming progressively smaller. To ensure that water does not slow down key industries, the energy transition and food security, several research groups at the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS are working on projects that at-tempt to solve current problems in the water, agriculture, and energy sectors in a holistic approach. One goal here is to use wastewater as a resource. This in-cludes, for example, new recycling methods for municipal and mining wastewater, which can provide important raw materials for sustainable agricul-ture as well as for the growing demand for hydrogen.

The automotive industry is undergoing an unprecedented transformation process: the emergence of electromobility in conjunction with advancing digitalization and the introduction of Industry 4.0 technologies are changing the sector significantly. As the industry changes, so do the demands on the professions that are deployed here. In the project “BeaT - Renewing Vocational Training for the Automotive Transformation”, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Fraunhofer IKTS and its partners are investigating which new qualification requirements the change in the automotive sector brings with it and how these requirements can be served in modern education and training programs. In collaboration with IKTS, the Institute of Sociology and the Service Center Research and Transfer of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena as well as the network automotive thüringen e.V. are partners.