The Center for Collective Use of Scientific Equipment «Laboratory of Advanced Technologies for the Creation and Physico-Chemical Analysis of New Substances and Functional Materials» is being established at Lviv Polytechnic. Recently, a modern automatic X-ray diffractometer for the research was purchased for the Lviv Polytechnic scientists by the University.
– Lviv Polytechnic occupies high ranking positions among the world’s higher education institutions and claims to become the best university in Ukraine. This requires significant measurable indicators – they can be achieved due to research and development. Therefore, we must have high-quality equipment so that our scientists do not look for such opportunities abroad, – says the Polytechnic Rector Yurii Bobalo. – We have not made such serious purchases for a long time, because there were not enough funds. But last year, after a thorough discussion with scientists, it was decided to buy expensive equipment for those researchers who are serious about science and can get significant results. It is important that many scientists of Lviv Polytechnic will be able to use this device for their research. I am sure that they will bring good results, which we will be able to use in the inquiries we submit for basic research and foreign projects.
By the way, at our University there are at least five centers of scientists who need such equipment –the Department of Semiconductor Electronics (ITRE), the Department of Applied Physics and Nanomaterials Science and the Department of General Physics (IMFS), the Department of Physical, Analytical and General Chemistry, the Department of Chemical Technology of Plastics Processing, the Department of Organic Chemistry, the Department of Technology of Biologically Active Substances, Pharmacy and Biotechnology (ICCT), the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (IMET), and the Department of Building Production (CEBS), where X-ray diffractometers are intensively used in scientific research and educational process. Until now, scientists have used Soviet devices, which, even if they were automated with the help of modern computer tools, could not compete with modern equipment, neither in terms of performance nor in terms of the quality of the results obtained.
– There are very few researchers who can do basic research. So we are ready to support those who know how and want to do science. For example, recently four young scientists from ICCT presented their important research, which also requires expensive equipment. Thus, given their desire to do science that Ukraine and Polytechnic need, after a long analysis, I offered the Vice-Rector for Scientific Research to announce a tender for the purchase of liquid chromato-mass spectrometer to perform analytical operations in chemistry, fine organic synthesis, and verification of the obtained compounds with high accuracy, – added Yurii Bobalo.
Polytechnic scientists are convinced that the automatic X-ray diffractometer will allow to raise to a qualitatively new level the materials science, physical, chemical and related researches conducted at the University. It will also open the way to wider international scientific and technical cooperation and help increase the number of young scientists, preserve human resources, expand the university’s representation in scientific journals and significantly increase the chances of receiving new international projects and grants.
