Joanna Ortyl is a Professor in the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology at Cracow University of Technology (Poland). She is also a CEO and Co-owner of Photo HiTech Ltd. (Cracow, Poland), which is specialized in the development and production of one component cationic photoinitiators working in visible light since 2013. She received her PhD degree in Chemistry (speciality Photochemistry) in 2012 from Cracow University of Technology. She worked as a post-doctoral researcher under Prof. Dr Thomas Jüstel at Müenster University of Applied Sciences in the Institute for Optical Technologies (Germany). She also completed a Master of Business Economics (MBE) course at Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley (USA). She worked as a Visiting Professor in Prof.Jacques Lalevée’s group in Institute de Science des Matériaux de Mulhouse in 2015, 2016, and 2019.Her research is always based on organic chemistry, photochemistry of small molecules as well as photochemistry of polymerization processes but always are correlated with practical application. She is an inventor on more than 30 patents, she has received more than 50 international and national awards for her research.

The goals of her research are:

1) Synthesis of new photoinitiators for cationic polymerization processes and study of their effectiveness and efficiency in photopolymerization of coating materials by Fluorescence Probe Technology (FPT), Real-Time FT-IR (RT-FTIR) and Photo Differential Scanning Calorimetry (p-DSC).

A series of new diaryliodonium photoinitiators have been developed and their performance in the initiation of cationic photopolymerization has been tested. The photoinitiators exhibit absorption characteristics compatible with the emission characteristics of medium pressure mercury lamps, which are the main sources of UV light in the industry. This solves the technical problem related to the poor match between absorption characteristics of commercial photoinitiators and the emission characteristics of industrial UV light sources.

2) Synthesis of new accelerators for polymerization and photopolymerization processes (e.g., ring-opening polymerization and special polymerization processes; free-radical photopolymerization of multifunctional monomers, the photopolymerization of a mixture of multifunctional monomers or oligomers that polymerize by different mechanisms leads to the build-up of two interpenetrating polymer networks (IPN).

 3) Synthesis of fluorescent compounds for the role of fluorescent probes for special applications – studying the properties of investigated media (e.g., cationic photopolymerization and the application of FPT for monitoring of the progress of cationic photopolymerization processes). 

4) Application of fluorescent probes in monitoring the progress of chemical reactions, including polymerization and photopolymerization processes (e.g., photocured layers).

5) Intelligent luminescent molecular sensors for selective detection in biochemistry and chemistry.

6) 3D-VAT printing processes and materials for additive manufacturing (AM)/rapid prototyping/solid free-form fabrication processes  (e.g., 3D printing processes for photocurable polymeric materials: technologies, materials, and machines.