News Archive

Three of our group members passed a first aid exam as an addition to their BHV training. It was challenging, but it was also enjoyable to learn how to deal with a variety of injuries and illnesses. While we of course hope to never need this knowledge, it’s best to be prepared. (December 2021)

Jessi van der Hoeven was awarded the KNCV Van Arkel prize at the Soft Matter session of the NWO CHAINS conference for her thesis “Gold based Nanorods, Tuning the Structure for Catalysis and Sensing”. The van Arkel Prize is awarded for the best thesis in the field of Physical and Inorganic Chemistry of the past two years (December 2021).

We are proud of our MCC group members shining at the NWO CHAINS2021 conference! Featuring Nong and Peter as chairs of the parallel sessions, Nienke and Valerio giving excellent talks, and our poster presenters Luc, Oscar, Just, Laura, Maaike, Hidde and Daan discussing their work in the virtual Gather Town world! (December 2021)

On Friday 15 October 2021, prof. dr. ir. Krijn de Jong gave his farewell lecture in the Domkerk. The lecture can be found here (starting after 18 minutes).

Since last summer, we have been reinforced by Tom Welling, who works on gas-cell EM studies of methane decomposition during carbon nanomaterial growth as a postdoctoral fellow, and Lappawat Ngamwongwan, a new PhD student who combines machine learning and DFT to study electronic and ionic transport in battery materials.

After a Covid-19 induced year of mostly online lectures, physical lectures have finally started again. Last week saw the first lectures of both the Advanced Catalysis and Nanomaterials courses with great attendance. This brings a great relief to both students and lecturers to which online education posed an obstacle. We are looking forward to the upcoming lectures.

As life is slowly getting more normal again, Savannah, Kristiaan, Min and Nienke had the chance to travel to Paris last week for their first real-life conference since the start of the pandemic! The scope of the CISCEM conference was to discuss in-situ electron microscopy, which is used to image materials on the nanoscale under realistic atmospheres (liquids and gases). Savannah gave a great talk about her study of the genesis of nickel catalysts with in situ liquid and gas phase TEM, well done! This conference was a fantastic opportunity to finally discuss science again in person and to explore Paris. Fingers crossed that more (international) conferences can be organized live again soon. (17 Sep. 2021)

Meer lezen over de toekomst van duurzame energie? Hier vind je een aantal interessante longread van de Universiteit Utrecht, met onder andere bijdragen van MCC en andere groepen uit het Debye Instituut.

The European Federation of Catalysis Societies (EFCATS) announces that – after nomination by the Dutch Catalysis Society – Dr. Carlos Hernandez Mejia has been selected as one of the three prize winners of the EFCATS Best PhD Thesis Award. More information on this EFCATS award can be found here.

This June, we welcomed Remco Dalebout back into our group as technician specialised in chemical analysis. Previously, he was a PhD candidate in our group.

Since the beginning of this year, we have welcomed three new PhD candidates in our group. They are Masoud Lazemi, Claudia Keijzer and Yuang Piao. Masoud works on X-Ray spectroscopy, specifically femtosecond XAS and RIXS of transition metal oxides using X-Ray Free Electron Lasers (XFELs). He is supervised by Frank de Groot and Uwe Bergmann (University of Wisconsin-Madison). Claudia’s project is about ultra-pure and structured porous materials as catalyst supports. Yuang works on bimetallic catalysts for the catalytic conversion of syngas into DME via methanol. Both Yuang and Claudia are supervised by Petra de Jongh.

In April, we also welcomed Sylvia Visser as a part-time secretary in our group. Besides working for MCC, she also works for the Physical and Colloid Chemistry group (PCC/FCC).

We are happy that Ad van der Eerden also supports our group as a technician. Only a few months after his retirement, he returned to our group in May 2021 as a part-time employee.

Debye physicists and chemists control catalyst structure at the atomic scale – Novel core-shell catalyst design published in Nature Materials. The work of MCC group members Jessi, Liselotte, Giorgio and Petra, together with the team of Alfons van Blaaderen and others appeared today. More details can be found here.

Op woensdag 28 april was Petra de Jongh te zien op NPO2 in het wetenschapsprogramma Atlas, om uitleg te geven over de rol van duurzaam waterstof in de energietransitie (in het Nederlands, item start op 13:38). Waterstof kan daarin een spilfunctie vervullen, omdat het fossiele brandstoffen en grondstoffen kan vervangen in de industrie, zwaar transport, en bij grootschalig opslaan van hernieuwbare elektriciteit, maar de eerste grote uitdaging blijft voorlopig om voldoende groene elektriciteit op te wekken.

Laura Barberis, PhD candidate of Petra de Jongh and Frank de Groot, won the poster prize with her poster “Particle size effects for copper-catalyzed CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol” at the Faraday Discussion Carbon Dioxide Utilisation (April, UK). Congrats! (April 2021)

We are in the process of dividing the group of Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis into two new groups, Materials Chemistry and Catalysis (MCC) of Petra de Jongh, Krijn de Jong, and Frank de Groot, and Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis (ICC) of Bert Weckhuysen and Eelco Vogt. This allows for more focus in research and efficiency in management. You have reached the temporary website of the new MCC group, that of the new ICC group can be found here. (2021)

The Alliance team, led by Sanli Faez and of which Peter Ngene is a member, receives a SPARK grant to create a radically accessible open-hardware platform for redox-flow batteries (March 2021).

In 2021 the Dutch Catalysis Society (sectie Katalyse of the KNCV) has awarded the KNCV-DCS Thesis Award to a talented young researcher. The award has been presented to Carlos Hernandez Mejia (MCC, promotor Krijn de Jong) during the 22th NCCC conference that took place online on March 1, 2021. The title of his thesis reads “Niobia-Supported Metal Catalysts for Synthesis Gas Conversion”. In the consideration of the international jury it was mentioned that the depth and methodology of the study of the metal support interaction was considered exemplary. The award comes with a certificate as well as € 1250 to be used for advancement of science. Congratulations to Carlos for this well-deserved award! (March 2021)

News Archive

Petra de Jongh appointed as member of the Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen

Next Einstein Forum Fellow Award and Alumnus of the month nomination for Peter Ngene

Prof. Petra de Jongh is elected as a new member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

Two NWO projects awarded to the ICC group

Volkskrant: interview with Petra de Jongh

Prize for best MSc thesis for Maarten Branssen

Thesis defense Peter Bramwell, 22 May 2017

Petra de Jongh contributed to the book “Hoe zwaar is licht?” (What is the weight of light?)

“Meet the Professor” with Petra de Jongh

Baira Donoeva invited to attend the 67th Lindau Nobel Laurate Meeting.

Our battery research on TV at NPO program EenVandaag

Inaugural Lecture of Prof. Petra de Jongh on September 16, 2016

Jessi van der Hoeven et al publishes in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Van Arkel Prize for Peter Ngene

NWO-ECHO grant for Petra de Jongh

ERC grant for Petra de Jongh

Nanoconfined LiBH4 (lithium borohydride) as a fast lithium conductor

Short Stay PhD Fellowship grant for Nazila Masoud

Petra de Jongh Chair of Inorganic Nanomaterials

Vind ik leuk: