When ions go hiking: New Insights into Solvation Kinetics at Electrocatalyst Surfaces

Crucial for the development of more efficient batteries and electrolyzers, or to fight corrosion

25-Sep-2024 - The Interface Science Department of the Fritz- Haber Institute has made additional strides toward "Exploring Dynamic Solvation Kinetics at Electrocatalyst Surfaces," as detailed in their article in the journal Nature Communications. Among other reactions, the researcher focused on the ion ...

How can Surface Morphology Change Selectivity in Electrocatalysis?

Catalyst roughness as a key factor

21-Jun-2024 - The Theory Department of the Fritz Haber Institute calls attention to catalyst morphology as a key factor in determining what product is being formed during an electrocatalytic reaction. The analysis, published in Nature Catalysis, explores how the ‘roughness’ of a catalyst surface changes the ...

Discovery of a new catalytic promoter on par with decades of study

Discovered in a few weeks and with fewer than 100 experiments

03-Jun-2024 - Addressing climate change demands rethinking of established chemical processes on a timescale of years rather than decades as in traditional R&D cycles. In collaboration with BasCat (UniCat BASF JointLab), a team of researchers from the Theory Department at the Fritz Haber Institute developed an ...

Researcher uses artificial intelligence to develop a new method for improving electrocatalytic converters

Computer program can simultaneously optimise several properties of a catalyst

20-Mar-2024 - Prof Dr Johannes Margraf and a team of scientists have developed a promising method to improve the efficiency of electrocatalysts. Using simulations and artificial intelligence, the researchers have developed a computer program that can simultaneously optimise several properties of the catalyst. ...

Bane and boon of oxygen mediating the performance of nickel catalysts in dry reforming of methane

Fundamental insights into the processes occurring at the catalyst surface

22-Jan-2024 - Catalysis is one of the key technologies in the chemical industry and has a wide-reaching impact on various aspects of our daily lives, including plastics manufacturing, drug synthesis, and production of both fertilizers and fuels. It is estimated that over 90% of chemical products are nowadays ...

Watching a Bimetallic Catalytic Surface in Action

Such insight on working catalysts is only possible to obtain using state-of-the-art experimental techniques under reaction conditions

01-Sep-2023 - A team of researchers from the Department of Interface Science at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society addressed the question: what happens to a Ga-promoted Cu surface under reaction conditions required for the synthesis of methanol? They found complex structural transformations of ...

How to play Catalysis Tetris?

29-Jul-2022 - The way molecules involved in a chemical reaction bond to the surface of a catalyst is key to improving catalyst performance. Researchers at the Fritz Haber Institute and Denmark's Aarhus University have now developed a machine learning algorithm that can predict this property for complex ...

A 40-year-old catalyst unveils its secrets

Findings will help catalyst research take an important step forward

30-Oct-2020 - “Titanium silicalite-1” (TS-1) is not a new catalyst: It has been almost 40 years since its development and the discovery of its ability to convert propylene into propylene oxide, an important basic chemical in the chemical industry. Now, by combining various methods, a team of scientists from ...

Towards a new design paradigm for high-performance catalysts

05-Oct-2018 - Mark Greiner and Travis Jones from the Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion and the Fritz-Haber Institute, along with a team of international researchers, have recently made a discovery that could transform the way chemicals are synthesized. The chemical industry relies on ...

Cheap and Cheerful: Iron to Replace Palladium

Scientists Develop Alternative Catalyst for Polyethylene Production

19-Jun-2012 - Precious metals are expensive and in demand, not just for jewellery or as a financial investment, but also in industry. Here, valuable metals are used, among other things, as catalysts in chemical reactions. For example, palladium is crucial in a decisive step in the production of polyethylene, ...