Fluoro-materials Science
This page is still under construction
Welcome to the Fluoro-Materials Group page.
Introduction
The Fluoro-Materials Group was established late 2007 in the Department of Chemical Engineering. The initiative was introduced by the DST through what is called the Fluorochemical Expansion Initiative.
South Africa has the second largest reserve of calcium fluoridein the world and currently has the third largest mining operations. Calcium fluoride or fluorspar is the most abundant, naturally occurring, form of fluoride. It is also the starting point for the production of anhydrous hydrogen fluoride, fluorine, tetrafluoroethylene and various other industrially important fluorides.
The Fluoro-Materials Group mainly focuses on research in the following areas:
- Production and production technology of anhydrous hydrogen fluoride and fluorine.
- Depolymerisation and polymerisation of polytetrafluoroethylene.
- Extraction of various metals from local ore and ore found in southern Africa.
- Production of various polymers, other than PTFE, by means of co-polymer additions to tetrafluoroethylene.
Staff
- SA Research Chair in Fluoro-materials Science and Process Integration
- Miss Denise Jacobs
- Personal Assistant to Prof Philip Crouse
- Mr Paul W. Sonnendecker
- Technical Officer
- B.Eng. (Hons) Chemical Engineering
- Mr Onias Sitando
- Laboratory and Instrument Assistant
- B.Sc. (Hons) Applied Science
Students
- Mr John Kabangu
- B.Sc. (Hons) Chemical Engineering
- Mr Ryno Pretorius
- M.Eng. Chemical Engineering
- Mr Gerard J. Puts
- Undergraduate
- Miss Melanie Jansen van Rensburg
- B.Eng. (Hons) Chemical Engineering
Projects
Production of anhydrous hydrogen fluoride and fluorine
- Prof Philip Crouse - Project supervisor
- Paul Sonnendecker - Project leader
- Joubert du Plessis - Student contributor
- Arno van den Berg - Student contributor
Depolymerisation of polytetrafluoroethylene
- Prof Philip Crouse - Project supervisor
- Gerard Puts - Project leader
- Paul Sonnendecker - Technical contributor
Extraction and purification of lithium ietsie ietsie ietsie
- Prof Philip Crouse - Project supervisor
- Onias Sitando - Project leader
Extraction and purification of niobium ietsie ietsie ietsie
- Prof Philip Crouse - Project supervisor
- John Kabangu - Project leader
Instruments
The Spectro ARCOS inductive-coupled plasma is a state-of-the-art inorganic measuring instrument for quantitative and qualitative measurements of most metals. The FMG lab has in excess of twenty standards for the determination of most heavy metals, ferrous and non ferrous metals and many more.
PerkinElmer Lambda 750s UV/Vis Spectrophotometer
PerkinElmer Lambda 750s Spectrophotometer
PerkinElmer Spectrum 100 FTIR Spectrometer
Documents
Back to Institute of Applied Materials.
