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.

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.

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…

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…

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

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

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

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

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

Promotor: H.W. Lenstra

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

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

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

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

Effectiveness and Side-effects.

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…

Promotie

Promotie

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.

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

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

Promotor: S.J. Edixhoven, A. Iovita

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.

Promotor: Prof.dr. A. Achucarro

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

A full overview of CASC PhD theses.

Promotie

Cathodic corrosion is a relatively unknown phenomenon that can severely etch metallic electrodes at cathodic (negative) potentials.

Koper

This work describes several studies into the electroreduction of carbon dioxide (CO2RR), both regarding mechanistical aspects and catalyst stability considerations. Mechanistic insights into carbon-carbon bond formation on a silver catalyst are described in Ch 2, were we find an acetaldehyde-like surface…

Chapter 1,contains the numerical verification of the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture for hundreds of Jacobians of hyperelliptic curves of genus 2, 3, 4 and 5.

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

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…

Coordination chemistry is the chemistry of metal atoms

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…

Platinum is a widely used catalyst, but its precise mechanism largely remains a mystery to scientists. Ludo Juurlink has now demonstrated for the first time how oxygen reacts on the platinum surface. Together with PhD students Kun Cao and Richard van Lent and international colleagues he publishes his…

Opponents of drastic nitrogen measures argue that the nitrogen calculation model is not reliable enough. Nitrogen professor Jan Willem Erisman: 'It is now much more important to discuss the choices we make on the basis of the outcome. The differences are much bigger than the uncertainties in the mod…

A team of astronomers of Leiden University and the University of Texas (Austin, United States) has discovered a new way to map distant galaxies. They did so by observing the fingerprint of oxygen in a distant galaxy, something that is usually not possible from Earth. The researchers will publish their…

Source: Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Volume 135, pp. S59-S59 (2015)

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

Fearing a trade-off with economic growth, countries feel discouraged to cut their CO2 emissions. But do the two really not go together? Environmental scientist Ranran Wang and her colleagues investigated the relationship between economic growth and CO2 emissions in 73 countries from 1970 to 2016. Wang:…

Marc Koper’s research focuses on electrocatalysis and electrochemical surface science for sustainable energy and chemistry. Reactions of interest are the redox reactions of the oxygen/hydrogen cycle (water oxidation, hydrogen evolution), the carbon cycle (reduction of carbon dioxide, oxidation of small…

Research at the Catalysis and Surface Chemistry group is comprised of the following research themes:

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

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

Promotors: Prof.dr. E. Bouwman, Prof.dr. E. Drent