Human civilization consumes a huge amount of fossil fuels, which has resulted in an atmospheric CO2 level which has not been higher in over 800 millennia.

Before the large scale use of renewable energy sources can be implemented in our society, the storage of electrical energy needs to be tackled. Storage the energy as hydrogen via the reduction of protons is a good option.

The electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is an essential half-reaction for the utilization of hydrogen as a sustainable fuel, via the conversion of hydrogen to electrons and protons facilitated by the ORR. In the most common fuel cells, the ORR is requires high loadings of non-abundant platinum…

This thesis has shed light on some of the ways in which the local electrolyte composition can differ from the bulk and how these changes in the local reaction environment can determine the activity and/or selectivity of two important electrocatalytic reactions, namely, electrochemical CO2 reduction…

Multicopper oxidase, laccase, can efficiently reduce oxygen to water and are mostly used in the enzymatic biofuel cells.

Heterogeneous catalysis is essential to many industrial applications. These catalysts are often comprised of supported nanoparticles, which contain various different surface sites.

The mechanism of the electrochemical reduction of dioxygen by a mononuclear pyridylalkylamine copper complex was investigated (see picture). It was shown that in neutral aqueous solution dioxygen undergoes stepwise reduction, wherein hydrogen peroxide plays a key role. The rate constants determined…

Promotor: M.T.M. Koper, Co-Promotor: F. Calle-Vallejo

Sustainable energy from wind and solar is most readily available near the sea.

M.T.M. Koper, Co-promotor: D.G.H. Hetterscheid

Promotor: H.J.M. de Groot, Co-Promotor: A. Alia

PhD Defence

In this dissertation, the synthesis and characterization of a series of iron complexes based on different ligand platforms are described.

Promotor: M.T.M. Koper, Co-promotors: A.I. Yanson, L.B.F. Juurlink

Koper

Promotor: H.W. Lenstra

With the energy transition toward a renewable energy supply and a CO2-neutral economy, electrification of the energy system is rising in importance, which leads to the challenge of long-term storage of renewable electricity.

Promotor: M.T.M. Koper, Co-Promotor: L.B.F. Juurlink

Promotor: M.T.M. Koper, Co-Promotor: L.B.F. Juurlink

Advanced sensing techniques require graphene with high quality and well-controlled surface chemistry.

A catalyst: normally a substance that speeds up a chemical reaction, without adding molecules to this reaction. Scientists from the group of Prof. Marc Koper of Leiden University and Prof. Yang Shao-Horn of MIT now discovered that in specific reactions that need oxygen, catalysts called metal oxides…

This thesis describes the use of a combined approach of computational and experimental techniques to gain novel insights to understand the glycosylation reaction and its reactive intermediates.

Effectiveness and Side-effects.

The local ordering of atoms at the surface of a metallic particle determines its catalytic activity and selectivity. As energy systems of the future will be based on efficient catalytic conversion of small molecules in closed cycles, we study how structural effects of catalysts can be used to our ad…

Promotor: A. Doelman, Co-promotor: J.D.M. Rademacher

In this dissertation iron-based homogeneous catalysts were synthesized, characterized and investigated for water oxidation activity.

How can we make the production of chlorine cheaper and more friendly for the environment?

Promotor: Prof.dr. T.J. Aartsma, Co-promotor: R.N. Frese

The glycosylation reaction is a pivotal reaction in creating new and complex oligosaccharides.

Coordination chemistry is the chemistry of metal atoms

Promotor: Prof.dr. E. Bouwman

This thesis focuses on the synthesis, characterization and performance towards CO2 electroreduction of mono and bi-metallic particles based on p-block metals

The research presented in this thesis makes use of small molecules (as H2 , D2 and O2 ) on well-defined single crystal surfaces (flat Pt(111), flat Cu(211) and curved Pt(111)) to elucidate the role of surface structure and degrees of freedom in the reactant in specific surface reactions.

The goal is to reduce single use coffee cup use both at the university cafés and cofee machines.

A difficulty of studies on chemical kinetics are the reaction time scales and detection of their intermediates.

Hetterscheid

Promotor: S.J. Edixhoven, A. Iovita

Electrocatalysis allows for storing electricity or converting it into chemical bonds, producing chemical building blocks and fuels using renewable resources.

This perspective addresses four challenges facing theorists whose aim is to make quantitatively accurate predictions for reactions of molecules on metal surfaces, and suggests ways of meeting these challenges, focusing on dissociative chemisorption reactions of H2, N2, and CH4.

This dissertation provides a formal description of the relationship between diatopic/diachronic micro-variation and phonologization through analysis of the phonetic/phonological properties of unstressed vowel reduction and vowel insertion in two Northern Italian dialects.

Although it is often assumed that the stereochemistry in Ugi multicomponent reactions is determined in the final Mumm rearrangement step, experimental and computational evidence that Ugi reactions on hydroxylated pyrrolines proceed under kinetic control is reported.

Promotor: Prof.dr. A. Achucarro

Promotores: G.W. Canters, T.J. Aartsma

Molecular complexes can be used as electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction, water oxidation, and/or hydrogen peroxide production.

Promotor: Arjen Doelman, Co-promotor: Vivi Rottschäfer

Promotor: E. Bouwman, Co-promotor: S. Bonnet

Twenty years from now, the world population is estimated to be around 8.7 billion people, compared to the current 7.3 billion. In combination with the improvements in living standards and the corresponding growth in consumption, this will result in an enormous increase in the demand for food, consumables,…

In this thesis we have discussed several parameters that affect the electrochemical conversion of enviromentaly harmful molecules such as nitrates and carbon dioxide to more valuable and less deleterious compounds, in order to cast light onto the mechanism of the reaction to achieve an efficient and…

In this thesis chemical and physical processes in the ice mantles on interstellar dust grains are studied.