Salvadó, Ignasi

Vega, Lourdes F.

Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

forumCONTRIBUTIONS to SCIENCE, 4 (2): 237 (2008)Institut d’Estudis Catalans, Barcelona
ISSN: 1575-6343 
www.cat-science.cat
MATGAS is a non-profit, research organization, born as a joint 
venture among Carburos Metálicos- Air Products Group, the 
Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de In-
vestigaciones Científicas-CSIC) and the Autonomous Universi-
ty of Barcelona (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona-UAB). It is 
one of the founder members of the Barcelona Nanotechnology 
Cluster.
MATGAS aim is to become a world leading and recognized 
centre of excellence in the use of combined modeling-experi-
mental approaches for the development of CO2 capture and 
application technologies, as well as energy related issues. 
MATGAS will contribute at different levels in the research and 
development of green technologies, friendly with the environ-
ment. This includes the development and characterization of 
materials for energy and environmental applications.
MATGAS activity is held in a modern building located at 
UAB campus. The research developed with the above men-
tioned goal is carried out in six main laboratories, set with last 
generation equipments: 
a)  Nanotechnology Laboratory, a last generation lab aimed 
to provide the needed techniques for the characterization 
of materials at the nanoscopic level. This allows develop-
ing technologies that exploit the specific properties of the 
materials at the nanometer scale. Examples of recent 
projects include the characterization of organic materials 
for photovoltaic applications, characterization of nano-
particles for different applications and measurements of 
phase transitions at the nanoscale.
b)  Supercritical Fluids Laboratory, which aims at promoting 
research and development of new applications of super-
critical fluids or fluids at high pressures and tempera-
tures. Recent applications of the Supercritical Fluids 
technology at MATGAS include: extraction and concen-
tration of natural products, development and purification 
of synthetic materials and catalysts, enhancement of 
drug delivery systems and dry cleaning.
c)  Gas Reactivity Laboratory, designed to study the reactiv-
ity and adsorption of a variety of gases into liquids and/or 
solid materials over a wide range of pressures and tem-
peratures. Some recent projects include the characteri-
zation of adsorbent materials for CO2 capture and hydro-
gen storage.
d)  Computational Modeling Laboratory, a permanent calcu-
lation infrastructure to provide support to MATGAS 
projects from a modeling perspective. Simulations done 
in this lab help to obtain a deeper understanding of prop-
erties and processes at the nanoscale. Examples of re-
cent projects include simulations hydrogen storage in 
carbon nanostructures, deposition of copper layers as 
electrical contacts in microelectronics, or the optimiza-
tion of nanoparticle dispersions.
e)  MATGAS also offers an Energy Laboratory and a High 
Bay Area which are currently under expansion.
*For further information: Ignasi Salvadó, Project Manager & External 
Relations, and Lourdes F. Vega, Director. Campus UAB, E-08193 Bel-
laterra, Catalonia, EU. Tel. +34 935929950. Fax +34 935929951. 
Website: http://www.matgas.com
MATGAS:	a	center	of	excellence	on	CO2
133-258 Contributions 4-2.indd   237 24/11/2009   16:27:30


MATGAS: a center of excellence on CO^2

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Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert