One of the technologies in which Jean-Paul Pirard has been the most active since the beginning of his career is that of sol-gel materials, which has given his chemical engineering laboratory universal recognition in academic and industrial circles.

Sol-gel processes were experimented with in 1845 by the French chemist Jacques-Joseph Ebelmen,  who synthesised glass by exposing silicic acid to a humid atmosphere. He had thus sparked off, without knowing it, a reaction which would be identified thirty years later under the name of polymerization. In the 1930s the idea was behind the demand for a patent in Germany to manufacture rear-view mirrors, but it would not really be exploited industrially until the end of the 1950s, which saw extraordinary developments. The primary interest of sol-gel processes lies in the fact that they allow for the manufacture of glass at low temperatures (between C20° and C150°), whilst the traditional fusion method necessitates ovens being heated up to C1500°. These processes opened the door to a multitude of new hybrid materials, amongst which one finds – fancy that! – nanocomposites. Their applications are innumerable, remarkably so in the vast area of coatings and claddings, for example anti-reflective glass, hydrophobic surfaces or catalysis surfaces.

The ULg’s chemical engineering laboratory has also developed, with the Lhoist group, a product called Minsorb®, to be added to the lime used in eliminating by adsorption dioxins in incinerator smoke. It has also recently developed an active synthetic carbon with a controlled porosity, which should find applications in pharmacy, and which will be commercialized by a joint spin-off, UCL-ULg-FUNDP-ULB, whose creation is imminent.