Materials Chemistry and Catalysis

Available student projects in MCC

BSc projects

If you are interested in doing a BSc project, you can write to dr. Peter Ngene. You can find an overview of the PhD candidates and postdocs via our Team site. You can also contact PhD candidates or post-doctoral researchers directly, with dr. Peter Ngene in the CC.

MSc projects

For the academic year 2026-2027 we can place a maximum of 15 MSc students in projects. Supervision will generally be by a PhD candidate as daily supervisor, with one or two staff supervisors. You can indicate a first, second and third topic as preference to our coordinator Peter Ngene,. You can also contact the PhDs and postdocs directly if you would like more information about their research. Some of the current open topics to choose from are:

• Battery materials: Interface engineering in solid state electrolytes with reducible metal oxide (Fabian Mohammad, f.j.mohammad@uu.nl)

• Computational/Machine learning: Applied to catalysis and energy storage (directly with Nong Artrith or Robin van der Kruyt)

• Computational: Water formation on Alkali(ne earth) promoted Cu catalysts using DFT (Robin van der Kruyt)
In the hydrogenation of CO₂ to CO or MeOH, water is produced in a 1:1 ratio to the converted CO₂. This quickly deactivates Cu catalysts, whilst alkali-promoted catalysts are more resistant to this. This project involves the creation of promoted structures covered in the relevant reaction intermediates and calculations using DFT/MLIP of these models. Please contact me if you are interested in working on this project.

• Computational: CO₂ methanation on alkali-promoted Ni using DFT (Robin van der Kruyt)
Hydrogenation of CO2 over Ni nanoparticles can efficiently produce CH₄, the addition of promoters can affect the activity and selectivity of the catalyst by influencing the reaction pathways. This project involves the creation of promoted structures with (some of the) the relevant reaction intermediates and products for calculations using DFT/MLIP of these models. Please contact met if you are interested in working on this project.

Literature review projects

If you are interested in performing a literature thesis in our group, you can contact a PhD candidate or postdoc with a project that seems interesting to you directly and ask if she/he has a project for you. You can find an overview of the PhD candidates and postdocs via our Team site. If you cannot find a suitable project, please ask our coordinator Peter Ngene.