They didn’t buy it – they built it. And their device beats commercial solutions
Creators of the “WUT Glass Mill” with their device. From left: Jakub Cyniak, Krzysztof Melcer and Prof. Artur Kasprzak
The team led by Prof. Artur Kasprzak from the Faculty of Chemistry conducts research in the field of mechanochemistry, which is one of the fastest‑growing techniques in organic synthesis. For their work, the researchers needed a ball mill. They built one themselves: it is cheaper than commercially available solutions and offers new capabilities.
Mechanochemistry helps reduce the environmental footprint of chemical processes and enhances reaction performance. However, conducting these reactions requires a specialised ball mill, which many laboratories simply do not have. Manual grinding in a mortar – another common approach – cannot deliver the controlled, well‑defined conditions needed for scaling up or for industrial use.
Our scientists saw this challenge and set out to address it.
“In our group, we designed and built a custom ‘Glass Mill’, which we named the ‘WUT Glass Mill’ (WUT referring to the English name of our university),” explains Prof. Artur Kasprzak. “The device is significantly cheaper than commercial ball mills. By choosing the right materials, we managed to keep the cost at around 4,000 PLN – commercial models cost ten times as much.”
The team also showed, using the synthesis of sophisticated molecular receptors as an example, that their device enables the production of unique chemical compounds. When they compared performance, the results turned out to be just as good – or even better – than those obtained with a commercial ball mill.
“We showcased the potential of the ‘WUT Glass Mill’ for this type of compound, but we believe its applications are much wider: it can be used to synthesise many other compounds and materials,” notes Prof. Artur Kasprzak.
The project also involved two doctoral students from the Faculty of Chemistry: Jakub Cyniak, and Krzysztof Melcer.
The “WUT Glass Mill”: a ball mill designed at WUT
The findings of our researchers have been published in the renowned journal Chemistry – A European Journal (MNiSW: 140 points, IF: 3.7): chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/chem.202502859. The paper was additionally selected for Wiley’s “Hot Topic: Mechanochemistry” collection: chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1002/(ISSN)1521-3765.hottopic-mechanochemistry.