INL Nanochemistry Research Group Day

On December 7th, 2023, the INL Nanochemistry Group celebrated the Annual Nanochemistry Day, where researchers presented their latest findings to the jury members: Laura Salonen, from the University of Vigo (Spain), and Begoña Espiña, the Group Leader of Water Quality at INL.

Tiago Fernandes won the best presentation award by the jury vote. His presentation was titled "Anionic Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis over Superparamagnetic Ferrites."

Another participant, Sandra Amaral, won the audience's choice award for her presentation. 

The researchers also discussed their work in the SpinCat project, which aimed to explore various aspects of nanochemistry. Ramsundar Mohan presented"Magnetic field mediated spin-polarized water splitting," and Maria Poupard presented "Bottom-up synthesis of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks: magnetic properties."

Spin matters! Magnetic order and chiral molecules in electrocatalysis Workshop

Chiara Biz and Mauro Fianchini, MagnetoCat SL, played a pivotal role as co-organizers of Spin Matters! workshop held from November 27th to December 1st. 

This workshop aimed to strengthen the field of electrochemistry by providing a roadmap for further research and fostering an international community of researchers. The workshop facilitated the exchange of ideas, challenges, and solutions on identifying the role of spin and chirality in electrochemistry, and it helped form lasting collaborations and strong connections among different disciplines. 

The workshop featured a mix of interactive sessions, brainstorming, panel discussions, dedicated talks, poster sessions, and social events, creating an atmosphere in which the new scientific community could be founded and flourish. The diverse range of participants from all career stages and expertise levels made the workshop successful.

Invited talks: Jose Gracia and Yury Kolen’ko; 

Oral contributions: Chiara Biz, Ramsundar and Laura Donk;

Poster contribution: Wei Chen

Learn more about the workshop here.

SpinCat workshop: “Interfacial Electrochemistry and Electrolysis”

The interfacial electrochemistry and electrolysis workshop was organised in November in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. 

We had the pleasure of welcoming visitors from all over Europe, both academia and industry, interested in electrochemistry. 

The first morning of the workshop was dedicated to the fundamentals of electrocatalysis with lectures by Marc Koper, Raphael Nagao, Wei Chen (TU/e) and Mariana Monteiro, setting the stage for exciting topics! 

As the day continued, we delved deeper into the fundamentals, focusing now on spin-catalysis with talks from Emma van der Minne, Jose Gracia (Magnetocat), and Mauro Fianchini (Magnetocat). 

On the second day, we moved on to materials for electrochemistry, with lectures from Susanne Koch, Floriane Rollier, and Yury Kolen’ko (INL). The last round included Thijs de Groot, Hugo Iglesias van Montfort and Sebastian Kopp (Fraunhofer ISE) on scaling up electrolysis. 

The program sparked plenty of scientific discussion, which was seen in lively discussions during the breaks. We truly enjoyed the interest in the event and believe it has reached a new audience for the consortium’s efforts on efficient water electrolysis.

Pt3Co Nanowires for Oxygen Reduction Electrocatalysis

Copyright Chemistry Views

The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) transforms molecular oxygen into H2O. The hydrogen atoms necessary for the reaction can be provided using molecular hydrogen or by electrochemical means, with an electrode providing electrons and an acidic aqueous phase providing protons. The ORR is an important reaction linked to the use of green hydrogen as a fuel for the production of electricity and heat in modern fuel cells. Platinum is generally used as a heterogeneous catalyst for this reaction, despite its high costs and scarcity. Replacing platinum with alloys or other materials would be useful. A Pt3Co alloy, for example, has shown excellent ORR activity.

Read the full and original news here.

NANOCHEMISTRY DAY 2022

Today the INL Nanochemistry Group had the Annual Nanochemistry Day!

The researchers presented their recent results to the external judges: Laura Salonen, from the University of Vigo (Spain) and Begoña Espiña, the Group Leader of Water Quality at INL.

Congratulations to the winners of the best presentations: Natalia, by the jury vote, and Viviana, the audience's choice!  

New article entitled “How magnetism can enhance hydrogen production to store energy”

The production and use of hydrogen as a source of clean, renewable, and sustainable energy is a priority of the European Union for the ecological transition of the coming decades.

Hydrogen would allow a decrease, if not complete elimination, of the use of fossil fuels. This would reduce the anthropogenic environmental footprint, with an immediate reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases, sulfides, nitrogen oxides, and other pollutants.

Read the full article here.

This article was written with the collaboration of chemists Mauro Fianchini and José Gracia, from MagnetoCat SL.

Interview at the Radio of the University Jaume I

On January 31st 2022, Chiara Biz from MagnetoCat SL gave an interview on the Radio of the University Jaume I (Castellón de la Plana, Spain) called VoxUji Radio. This interview focused on the importance of having more sustainable catalytic processes by using magnetic catalysts, the devices in which magnetic materials are currently exploited, and the importance of computational modelling and quantum mechanics in the rational design of magnetic catalysts.

Listen to the full interview here.

Questions and answers.

Why is improving the sustainability of catalysis so important?

For three reasons:

1. Saving reagents/solvents in academic institutions and industrial enterprises.

2. Reducing environmental footprint and chemical pollution.

3. Influencing the economy positively through the easy production, sale and exploitation of novel technologies based on hydrogen gas.

Which kind of applications can magnetic materials have? And what is the scientific impact of your work at MagnetoCat?

1. Magnetic materials are employed in fuel cell devices for energy production, electrochemical cells for water splitting, electronic devices and sensors.

2. Our studies correlate the concepts of electron spin and magnetism with heterogeneous catalysis and explain the quantum mechanical origin of the electronic properties of catalysts containing cheaper and abundant magnetic metals such as iron, cobalt and nickel. Theoretical studies are relevant to the design of new advanced catalysts.

Article entitled “Magnetism at the root of enhanced ‘green’ catalysis” published in Alpha Galileo and re-published in Phys.org

Graphical abstract. Credit: DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.1c03135

The research group at MagnetoCat SL (Alicante, Spain) published a fundamental theoretical work on magnetism in heterogeneous catalysis in ACS Catalysis.

The group, composed of PhD student Miss Chiara Biz, Dr Mauro Fianchini and Dr Jose Gracia, laid out a complex and comprehensive theoretical treatment linking electronic spin, magnetism and heterogeneous catalysis. This treatment concerns the behaviour of correlated electrons in solids and the quantum mechanical "tricks" they implement to avoid each other while balancing repulsions and attractions.

Read the full news here.

New article entitled “Strongly correlated electrons in catalysis: focus on quantum exchange” published in Advances in Engineering

Quantum correlations within catalysts have been recently extensively explored. Understanding complex quantum phenomena, such as those involved in ferromagnetism and metal-insulator transitions, is an interesting research area that is of great significance in both academic domain and real-life applications. For example, strongly correlated electrons have considerable influence on various aspects of heterogenous catalysts like cost, implementation, efficiency and environmental footprint. They are thus vital in enhancing the efficiency of electrocatalytic processes for green and sustainable hydrogen production. Among spin-dependent potentials, quantum spin-exchange interactions (QSEI) are the most extensively studied, even though by only few research groups. QSEI are space-time scattering events found among electrons with similar spin. Owing to their ability to change orbitals, they enable electrons with the same spin to avoid proximity. Consequently, quantum spin-exchange interactions (QSEI), which are not part of classical physics, are reportedly responsible for unique magnetic catalyst properties. Thus, the two mechanisms, QSEI and QEXI (quantum excitation interactions), are crucial considerations in quantum correlations.

Know more about the article here.

Local newspaper articles about the subject can be found here.

Biz, C., Fianchini, M., & Gracia, J. (2021). Strongly Correlated Electrons in Catalysis: Focus on Quantum Exchange. ACS Catalysis, 11(22), 14249-14261.