Heterogeneous catalysis is considered one of the key technologies in prospective energy conversion scenarios. Yield, efficiency, and lifetime of heterogeneous catalysts will become of utmost importance and the demand of novel high-performance catalysts fulfilling the above- mentioned criteria will rise tremendously. To cope with the prospective high demand for these functional solids, current catalyst development approaches that are based on empirical optimization may become insufficient and should be replaced by knowledge-based catalyst design strategies. [more]

Fuel cells and electrolysers require electrocatalysts to minimize losses during energy conversion processes. It is common practice that researchers rely solely on electrochemical methods to test stability in search of novel electrocatalysts. While degradation can be tracked using such methods, they fail when one aims to understand governing degradation mechanisms responsible for the losses in catalyst performance. Complementary physicochemical techniques are required. One such technique is inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) – the main topic of my talk. [more]

The increasing demand for renewable and low-cost energy motivates intensive research aimed at developing, characterizing and optimizing materials that can efficiently convert (sun) light into usable energy in the form of electricity or chemical fuels. Conventional characterization techniques either lack the spatial resolution necessary to resolve individual atoms, or they lack the temporal resolution required to capture structural rearrangements as they evolve. [more]

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The guidelines of sustainable development require a transformation of today's linear chemical industry with the aim of closed carbon cycles. In this process, renewable energy can be used as an energy/heating source and to provide chemical redox equivalents, e.g. in the form of hydrogen or electrons. Catalysts are essential to enable selective chemo-, bio-, or even electrocatalytic reactions under the dynamic supply of resources. [more]

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The focus will be the catalyst characterization and development in heterogenous catalysis in particular in acetylene hydrogenation. The role of acetylene hydrogenation in industry and future renewable energy approaches will be discussed. [more]

Tomorrow’s chemicals are facing massive transitions due to the need for an alternative energy input, changing feedstock, limited resources, varying cost structures, etc. Chemical and reaction engineering is in charge for chemical and electrochemical reactions to meet the upcoming business and technical objectives. For simultaneous process-product design, a multiscale understanding provides opportunities to consider phenomena on different time and length scales of the reaction system. [more]

Metal oxide photoelectrodes tend to be cheap, easy to fabricate, and show relatively good (photo)chemical stability in aqueous solutions. This makes them attractive candidates as light absorbers in a variety of photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic applications. However, the energy conversion efficiencies of these absorbers are poor compared to photovoltaic-grade materials. [more]