Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society

The Max Planck-Cardiff Centre Funcat lays the foundations for the systematic development of chemical reaction accelerators

King Felipe the VI of Spain visited the Fritz Haber Institute

With the live talk between Nobel Laureate Benjamin List and Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim, the 73rd Max Planck Society Meeting in Berlin draws to a close

Insights into the oxidation of hydrocarbons at vanadium pentoxide pave the way for a new catalyst design

The transfer of angular momentum in 4f antiferromagnets depends on the strength of RKKY coupling

In future, the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide could be used to create important chemicals and fuels. If this vision becomes reality, it would be a major step towards achieving a sustainable circular economy. The Interface Science Department of Beatriz Roldán Cuenya at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin is working toward this very goal.

Cryo-electron microscopy facilitates the precise imaging of tiny structures, such as molecules, right down to the atomic level. For their contribution to the development of this technology, British molecular biologist Richard Henderson, German-born American researcher Joachim Frank and Swiss biophysicist Jacques Dubochet were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017. At the Max Planck Society’s Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin, former Research Group Leader Friedrich Zemlin was also involved when the method carved out a place for itself in biology in the 1980s.

Three problems, one solution: This is the special charm of a research project on which Malte Behrens and Robert Schlögl are working at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin. The chemists want to use carbon dioxide as a chemical raw material, which would keep the greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere, replace coal, gas and oil, and store renewable energy.

From plastic bags to hydrogen gas: almost nothing happens in chemistry without catalysts. The reaction accelerators often contain metals that are sometimes rare or need large amounts of energy to do their job. A research team headed by Robert Schlögl, Director at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin, wanted to find out whether it was possible to do without catalysts.

Imagine vehicles that are just a few nanometers large and that clean surfaces or build molecular structures like tiny vehicles at a construction site. To bring this idea, or that of molecular electronics, out of the realm of imagination and into the real world, physicists are investigating the physics of the nanoworld.

At the Fritz-Haber-Institut (FHI) in Berlin, new experimental methods to characterise, to control and to spectroscopically investigate molecules in the gas phase, in liquids and on surfaces are developed and exploited. Two methods that have been pioneered under the guidance of H.-J. Freund to understand the relation between structure and chemical activity in model systems for heterogeneous catalysts, that is, on single crystalline substrates, are presented here: Surface Action Spectroscopy (SAS) and high-speed spiral STM (scanning tunneling microscopy).

Interfacial catalysts are developed today as ever by empirical methods despite of their strategic relevance for chemical industry and the energy transition. The wealth of knowledge from surface science proves insufficient for a knowledge-based design approach. One critical reason for this gap is chemical dynamics under working conditions leading to profound constitutional changes of the interface and its sub-surface volume. Using results from operando experiments and from theory allows us to redesign catalysts as thin film systems with pre-defined chemical dynamics. 

Defining element of phase transitions is the form of the free-energy landscape, and ordered phases are defined by its minima. However, many questions regarding the precise form and properties of these energy landscapes and the microscopic dynamical processes across phase transitions remain open. Using ultrashort laser pulses, we have investigated the energy landscapes of various materials to illuminate the mechanisms behind the phase transitions. Aiming at manipulating materials properties on ultrafast time scales, this approach e.g. paves the way towards novel data storage possibilities.

More efficient electrolyzers for the production of green hydrogen directly from water, or energy-storing carbon compounds from CO2 using renewable energy require the development of suitable catalysts. It is essential to gain fundamental insight into the physical and chemical processes under reaction conditions. Recently, we revealed key dynamic processes during electrochemical CO2 reduction. Enhancing our understanding of catalytic reaction mechanisms guides the development of new electrocatalysts to achieve the industrial transformation towards a sustainable and hydrogen-based economy.

Large amounts of data are generated in catalysis and in the research of other functional materials. The interdisciplinary use of all these data using methods of computer science and artificial intelligence will lead to new insights in materials science. However, it places high demands on the quality of the data. We develop standardized procedures for the generation of (meta-) data of complex, dynamic systems, thereby contributing to a FAIR use of research data as a basis for the development of new, future-proof technologies.