Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Gold Nanorod Systems for Water Heating

Abstract

During this seminar, Pawel Ziolkowski, Ph.D., the Principal Investigator of the nanoHEATgold project will introduce the audience to the project’s main goals, key achievements and potential impact, while also sharing the story behind the establishment of the Laboratory of Electromagnetic Energy to Heat Conversion.

The seminar will explore how tiny gold structures, known as gold nanorods, can transform light into heat and how this phenomenon could open up new possibilities for innovative applications, including the inactivation of microorganisms. By exposing these nanostructures to laser light, researchers can generate heat in a highly localized and controlled way.

One of the most exciting findings is that the shape, size, and arrangement of gold nanorods play a crucial role in determining how efficiently they produce heat. By carefully adjusting these properties, it is possible to improve their response to light and achieve higher temperatures in precisely defined areas.

The research combines computer simulations with laboratory experiments to better understand how light interacts with gold nanorods and how the resulting heat spreads through the surrounding environment. This approach helps researchers identify the conditions needed to maximize heating efficiency and explore how the technology could be used to effectively inactivate microorganisms.

The audience will also gain insight into how the research brings together several fields of science, from the synthesis and microscopic imaging of gold nanorods to optical measurements, computer modelling and temperature experiments. Special attention will be given to how changes in nanorod shape and proportions affect the way they interact with light. In particular, increasing the aspect ratio of gold nanorods shifts their optical response towards the near-infrared region, opening up interesting opportunities for light-based heating applications.

Overall, the seminar will show how the combination of nanotechnology, physics and engineering can turn a fundamental understanding of light–matter interactions into innovative approaches to controlled heat generation.

The speaker

 Dr. Paweł Ziółkowski has been serving as an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Ship Technology, Gdańsk University of Technology, since 2018. He is a graduate of Gdańsk University of Technology and was awarded his Ph.D. in Mechanics, with a specialization in Thermodynamics, on 22 June 2018 at the Institute of Fluid Flow Machinery of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Gdańsk. Prior to joining the university faculty, he spent over twelve years at the Energy Conversion Department of the same institute. Since March 2011, his research has focused on advanced numerical thermo mechanics, including the modeling of fluid–solid interactions, thermodynamic cycles, and chemically reacting flows under laminar, transitional, and turbulent regimes. In 2025, he was honored with a prestigious national scholarship awarded by the Minister of Science and Higher Education for outstanding achievements in engineering and technical sciences. Dr. Ziółkowski is the Principal Investigator of the NCN SONATA project nanoHEATgold (“Shape and displacement optimization of gold nanorods in the killing chamber in order to phototermoablation processes”), conducted in collaboration with Sapienza University of Rome (Italy) and the Medical University of Gdańsk and University of Gdansk (Poland) and Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA) and Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden (Germany). The project addresses photothermal energy conversion using laser irradiation and gold nanorods, combining numerical modeling and experimental investigations to advance applications in microbial inactivation and photothermal technologies. His key scientific achievements include the successful leadership of interdisciplinary research projects resulting in high quality international publications. He has completed research internships at the Laboratoire Énergies & Mécanique Théorique et Appliquée (LEMTA) in France and at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Norway, at Oregon State University (OSU), and he is currently undertaking a four month research stay at Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering at University of Trento.