New contract for research collaboration

Bio Nano Consulting (BNC), is pleased to announce that it has signed a contract for a new two-year research collaboration with one of its key partners in the Middle East. Representing BNC’s third major collaboration with the Chemistry Department of King Abdulaziz University (KAU), this contract will support two collaborative research projects in the increasingly-important field of environmental nanotechnology.

The agreement will fund research in two important projects looking at the application of nanotechnology to environmental issues, with the overarching aim to develop new classes of multifunctional nanomaterials that can pave the way for more sustainable and energy-efficient processes. In the first project the teams will develop and assess novel photocatalysts for water purification applications, and in the second project they will demonstrate these in a photocatalytic water treatment prototype, to be designed and built by the teams. Photocatalysts are special compounds that use light to speed up a chemical reaction without being used up themselves. They have the potential to remove organics and other pollutants from water using energy from sunlight, making them of particular interest in areas of the world with significant amounts of natural light.

These projects will extend the excellent working relationship that has already been established during two previous collaborative research alliances between the teams in which BNC has provided extensive knowledge of nano structure synthesis and development of novel materials to complement the in-house catalysis and characterisation expertise of its collaborators from KAU. These previous research collaborations have to date resulted in 17 articles in refereed journals and six patent submissions. Commenting on the new project, BNC’s CEO, Dr David Sarphie, said: “We are delighted to again be collaborating with the excellent team at KAU. This demonstrates the value that both teams see in such a research alliance and clearly underlines the excellent scientific and project management expertise that BNC and its partners can deliver.”

This partnership will enable the exchange of ideas and personnel, with scientific investigators carrying out their research in both the UK and Saudi Arabia, in order to develop and transfer knowledge, technologies and research best-practice between the groups involved.