The PSI Laboratory for Catalysis and Sustainable Chemistry studies functioning catalysts for energy conversion and storage as well as for sustainable chemicals conversion.
Lab News & Scientific Highlights
Aluminium made visible
PSI researchers have for the first time determined the exact position of the aluminium atoms in zeolites, which make these materials such good catalysts.
Watch them growing: New mechanistic insights into catalytic methane coupling
Methane valorization is a promising technology to utilize this platform compound to produce aromatics and hydrocarbons. Researchers from PSI and ETH Zürich unveiled this reaction mechanism and observed the molecular growth from the ground up. Besides stepwise CH3 addition, novel routes involving the dimerization of resonantly stabilized propargyl (C3H3) radicals to benzene (C6H6) were identified. These mechanistic insights will aid the development of valorisation strategies.
The dynamics of overlayer formation on catalyst nanoparticles and strong metal-support interaction
The editors at Nature Communications have put together an Editors’ Highlights webpage of recent research called “Catalysis” and chose to feature Arik Beck's et al. article, entitled “The dynamics of overlayer formation on catalyst nanoparticles and strong metal-support interaction”.
Publications
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Aegerter D, Fabbri E, Novotny Z, Borlaf M, Yüzbasi NS, Comini N, et al.
Evaluation of dip-and-pull ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for investigating oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalysts
ACS Applied Energy Materials. 2025; 8(19): 14554-14567. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.5c02252
DORA PSI -
Artsiusheuski M, Casati N, Clark A, Nachtegaal M, Verel R, van Bokhoven J, et al.
Controlling the mechanism of nucleation and growth enables synthesis of UiO‐66 metal‐organic framework with desired macroscopic properties
Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 2025; 64(4): e202415919 (13 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202415919
DORA PSI -
Artsiusheuski MA, Guo J, Kulkarni AR, van Bokhoven JA, Sushkevich VL
Low-temperature nonoxidative dehydrogenation of short-chain alkanes over copper(I) mordenite via chemical looping
Journal of the American Chemical Society. 2025; 147(18): 15880-15889. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c04229
DORA PSI