Time-resolved in situ methods for design of catalytic sites within sustainable chemistry

Research Project

The aim of the project is to address important catalytic processes for production of sustainable fuels. Information from novel time-resolved in situ synchrotron methods will be combined with theoretical modeling to study the three challenging scientific cases: (a) photocatalytic synthesis of hydrogen from water splitting via homogeneous and heterogeneous catalytic routes, (b) catalytic hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to methanol and (c) functionalised zeolitic frameworks for direct synthesis of methanol from bio-methane. Advanced catalyst structure-function correlation experiments will be performed using X-ray spectroscopy and high-energy X-ray diffraction. Specifically a new X-ray emission spectrometer infrastructure and infrared spectroscopy set-up will be created. Density-functional theory (DFT) for first-principles calculations and kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) simulations will be used as well. The research will pave the way for future in situ studies in material science in large using XES and HE X-ray methods.