Lecture
Van Marum Colloquium: Understanding and designing active and stable electrocatalysts
- Date
- Monday 21 September 2026
- Time
- Location
-
Gorlaeus Building
Einsteinweg 55
2333 CC Leiden - Room
- CM.3.23
Abstract
The development of active and stable electrocatalysts is crucial to enable a more sustainable society, wherein the current fossil-based chemical industry transitions to a circular and renewable-based model.
CO2 electroreduction is a promising approach to convert waste CO2 into basic chemical feedstocks and fuels, effectively closing the carbon cycle.
This talk will focus on our recent advancement in understanding and designing active and stable CO2 reduction electrocatalysts. Most of the discussion will center on copper, because of its so far unmatched activity and selectivity in converting CO2 into highly valuable multi-carbon compounds. The drawback of copper instability will be covered along with the understanding of the mechanism behind it. The compositional and structural changes of copper during operation are a major hurdle for CO2 operational stability. A solution must be found to achieve the thousand hours desirable for technological implementation. Thus, strategies to address copper instability based on the current understanding of the mechanism behind its changes will be presented along with proposing the use of liquid metal catalysts as an alternative to conventional solid catalysts.