Coordinator
Prof. Dr. Martin Muhler
Technische Chemie
Faculty of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Phone: 0234/32-28745
E-Mail: muhler@techem.ruhr-uni-bochum.de
Funded since 2000
Link
Targeted tampering
Collaborative Research Centre (SFB ) 558: Metal-substrate interactions in heterogeneous catalysis
Catalysts can be found everywhere – whether as a three-way catalytic converter in cars or as a self-cleaning device in a modern oven. Catalysts cannot only speed up chemical reactions, they can also make them happen at low temperatures and low pressure and help avoiding superfluous by-products. They are involved in more than 80 per cent of all industrial chemical processes. These substances, however, which chemists have detected by trial and error, remain mysterious to a large extent.
In SFB 558 heterogeneous catalysts are focus of attention – solids at the surface of which gases and liquids are converted. In the catalysis of exhaust fumes, e.g., these are so-called zeolites, crystalline substances whose network structure can be studded with reducing agents. In order to optimize catalytic processes the researchers have to understand their functions in detail. Thus they found that oxidized metals are by no means chemically inert. With state-ofthe- art equipment and quantum chemical methods the researchers were able to show that the removal of one single oxygen atom from the surface of the oxide a reactive centre is created.
At present the SFB is the only German one in chemistry which has a transfer unit in which it develops efficient powder catalysts (nanoscale oxide particles loaded with metal) in cooperation with Süd-Chemie. In addition it has a Research Training Group of highly talented young chemists, which is one of the few institutions of this kind funded by the DFG. The young researchers aim at embedding metallic nanoscale particles in porous solids by applying new methods and thus to produce completely new catalysts.
