New Approaches for More Efficient Catalysts

MPI participates in a 9.2-Million Project funded by DFG

The Max Planck Institute is participating in a DFG project, funded with 9.2 million euros, aimed at developing more efficient catalysts. As part of this project, Dr. Constanze Neumann and her team are researching metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) that convert homogeneous catalysts into heterogeneous ones and make them reusable multiple times.

Many homogeneous catalysts do an excellent job of facilitating reactions in a highly targeted manner. “But since the reaction is catalyzed by soluble catalysts, it is very difficult to reuse them,” says Dr. Constanze Neumann, group leader at the MPI für Kohlenforschung. This is where so-called MOFs—metal-organic frameworks—come into play, and Neumann and her team are working on them. These MOFs are, so to speak, molecular scaffolds in which homogeneous catalysts can be “trapped”—so that they ultimately become heterogeneous catalysts and can thus be reused multiple times.

The Neumann group’s work has now received funding as part of a DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) project. The Collaborative Research Center (SFB) “Molecular Heterogeneous Catalysis in Defined Directing Geometries,” which is now entering its third and final phase, also includes the University of Stuttgart, the MPI for Solid State Research, and the universities of Paderborn, Marburg, Bochum, and Ulm, among others.

“We are involved in two subprojects within the team,” reports Constanze Neumann. The first of these two projects focuses on developing completely new approaches for catalytic reactions that are already in use in industry. “We are, so to speak, seeking an alternative to classical heterogeneous catalysis, where it is often difficult to produce only the desired product.”

The second project focuses on so-called cooperative catalysis within a MOF—that is, the interaction of multiple catalysts during a reaction. These MOFs offer scientists a high degree of control over the reaction processes. “However, one must expect changes compared to completely homogeneous catalysis,” says Neumann. These changes can be advantageous, but they can also have drawbacks. “Our job is to identify the advantages and build on them.”

For Constanze Neumann and her team, collaborating within the SFB offers several key advantages. “First, there’s the lively exchange among all participants, including both the principal investigators and the students,” she says. There are regular online meetings, lectures, and retreats. On the other hand, she says, it’s very rewarding to be able to draw on the expertise of the collaborating partners. “We’re working with people who have been building expertise in this field for eight years. That complements our research perfectly,” says Neumann.

The project will receive a total of 9.2 million euros in funding from DFG over the next four years.