Summer School 2025 in Kiel

[22-25 September 2025] Kiel hosted the Summer School 2025, gathering students and researchers for advanced training in modern catalysis. CRC/TRR 247 proudly supported the event, with our PhD students participating and our PIs Prof. Olaf Magnussen and Prof. Malte Behrens giving lectures on electrocatalysis and catalyst synthesis.

The program combined lectures, networking, and a unique industry visit to Sasol, providing an inspiring platform for learning and collaboration across northern Germany.

Please find the two LinkedIn posts here and here.

TRR 247 Mercator Fellow Prof. Iryna Zenyuk visited RUB

[22 September 2025] One of our Mercator Fellows Prof. Dr. Iryna Zenyuk from the University of California, Irvine, USA, visited Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) in September 2025.

Prof. Zenyuk participated in the Materials Chain International Conference 2025 (MCIC 2025) at RUB, where she delivered a scientific talk. Following the conference, she visited laboratories located in the ZEMOS building used by the TRR 247 team. During her stay, she met with principal investigators, doctoral candidates, and postdoctoral researchers to exchange ideas and discuss ongoing research within the consortium.

76th Annual Meeting of the ISE in Mainz

[7-12 September 2025] CRC/TRR 247 participated in the 76th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE) in Mainz, 22-26 September 2025. We co-sponsored the Opening Ceremony and presented research at Booth #9, in collaboration with xemX materials space exploration GmbH, CRC 1625 and ERC DEMI.

Members of CRC/TRR 247 contributed with presentations and posters, covering topics including electrocatalyst design, oxygen evolution reaction studies, and single-entity electrochemistry of IrOx nanoparticles. Guided discussions and interactions with conference attendees provided valuable feedback and fostered networking across research groups and institutions.

The event highlighted the center’s engagement in advancing electrochemical nanoscience and green hydrogen research, while promoting scientific exchange within the international electrochemistry community. The detailed program can be find here.

Award Recognition
PhD student Sebastian Reinke received a poster prize for his work on CVCaRe, a tool for analyzing capacitive CVs, recognizing his contribution to electrochemical data analysis and methodology development. Congratulations!

Please find the LinkedIn post here.

PCCP Emerging Investigator Lectureship Award

[09 September 2025] Congratulations to our PI Kai S. Exner (University Duisburg-Essen), who won the 2025 PCCP Emerging Investigator Lectureship Award! This prize is awarded to early career researchers who have made incredible contributions to physical chemistry, chemical physics or biophysical chemistry. Moreover, it acts as a platform to showcase their research to the wider scientific community.

You can find more information here.

EuropaCat 2025 in Trondheim

[31 August - 5 September 2025] Members of CRC/TRR 247 participated in "EuropaCat 2025", held in Trondheim, Norway, presenting recent results and engaging with the catalysis community. Contributions covered topics including oxidation catalysis, mesostructured cobalt-manganese oxide electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction, and correlations between heterogeneous thermal and electrocatalytic oxidation of ethylene glycol.

The event provided a platform for scientific exchange, fostering collaboration across experimental and theoretical research within the CRC/TRR 247 network.

Please find the LinkedIn post here.

Soft Skills Summer 2025

[01 July 2025] We are happy to announce our annual Soft Skills Summer 2025, taking place for the fifth time. This joint event is initiated by CRC/TRR 247, CRC 1242, CRC/TRR 270, 2D-Mature, and CENIDE.

We would like to invite all female PhD candidates and postdocs to be a part of this event and to improve your soft skills.

CRC/TRR 247 participates in Inside RUB Open Day

[26 June 2025] On 26 June 2025, Ruhr University Bochum hosted Inside RUB, an open day for school students and children to explore the university’s academic programs. Our CRC/TRR 247 participated with a booth in the ZEMOS building, presenting the center’s research activities.

Prof. Kristina Tschulik conducted guided laboratory tours, providing an introduction to electrochemical nanoscience. The event offered an opportunity to engage young visitors with ongoing research and to promote interest in scientific careers.

Please find the LinkedIn post here.

1st Place at Science Slam for Materials Researchers

[17 June 2025] Our PhD candidate Anastasiia Kotova secured first place in the 2nd Science Slam for Materials Researchers with a presentation on the OER mechanism of Co₃O₄ nanoparticles as electrocatalysts for water splitting. The presentation highlighted nanoscale phenomena observed through electrochemical studies and TEM analysis.

She emphasized her commitment to continuing science outreach, aiming to engage broader audiences and raise awareness of research in electrocatalytic hydrogen production. Congratulations!

Please find the LinkedIn post here.

4th GDCh Division of Chemistry and Energy Conference in Duisburg

[9 April 2025] The 4th GDCh Division of Chemistry and Energy conference was held on 9–10 April 2025 at the Fraunhofer InHaus Center in Duisburg, co-organized by CRC/TRR 247. Around 90 participants attended the event, themed “Green Energy Transformation – GET it done!”, highlighting chemistry’s role in the energy transition. Keynote speakers, including Robert Schlögl, Monika Bosilj, Peter Strasser, and Anke Weidenkaff, addressed topics such as energy storage, chemical energy carriers, hydrogen technologies, and sustainable materials. The conference included presentations, discussions, a poster session, and concluded with awards for Kevinjeorjios Pellumbi (PhD prize) and Dr. Ieva Cechanaviciute-Misiune (Electrochemistry award), followed by a guided tour of the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Center (ZBT). For more information, follow this link.

Please find the LinkedIn post here.

INF Workshop - Research Data Management System

[18 March 2025] Dr. Victor Dudarev and Prof. Alfred Ludwig presented the CRC/TRR 247 Research Data Management System (RDMS) at a recent workshop. The session covered RDMS features for seamless data storage, efficient search and analysis, and user-friendly sharing among CRC/TRR 247 groups.

Dr. Dudarev highlighted multi-tenant support, project tree management, and data visualization tools designed to improve accessibility and usability of research data.

The workshop aimed to introduce new participants to the system and encourage our CRC/TRR 247 community to brainstorm about new and useful features to implement.

The session was recorded and is available here on YouTube.

Please find the LinkedIn post here.

Annual Meeting 2025

[12-14 February 2025] From 12–14 February 2025, the CRC/TRR 247 Annual Meeting was held in Lüneburg. The meeting provided an opportunity to review the scientific progress of the last year and to initiate the planning phase for the third funding period. Each subproject presented its results, which were discussed in detail during the sessions.
On the first evening, PhD candidates presented their work in a poster session that encouraged lively scientific exchange. In addition, participants joined a guided city tour of Lüneburg, which offered an opportunity for informal interaction alongside the scientific program. The annual meeting was an important occasion to strengthen collaboration within the consortium and to define next steps in advancing heterogeneous catalysis in the liquid phase. 

Please find the LinkedIn post here.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2025!

[24 December 2024] Dear all. We wish you Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and successful year 2025!

How Catalysts Secretly Lose Their Stability

[26. November 2024] Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum and the Max Planck Institutes have shown that covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are less stable catalysts than previously thought. Their high activity in the oxygen evolution reaction is actually due to cobalt ions detaching from the framework and forming cobalt oxide nanoparticles. The COF scaffold itself mainly prevents these nanoparticles from clumping, ensuring stable activity. This overturns earlier assumptions about COF stability and points to a support role rather than direct catalysis. The findings, published in Advanced Science on November 26, 2024, open new paths for designing hybrid catalysts that combine COFs with nanoparticles for sustainable chemical and energy applications.

Please find the press release here.

CRC/TRR 247 now on LinkedIn

[15 November 2024] CRC/TRR 247 has launched its official LinkedIn page to share updates on research activities, events, and scientific achievements. The platform aims to facilitate engagement with the scientific community and broader public. Our former Twitter / X account in no longer active. 

PI-Meeting

[26-27 September 2024] In this PI-Meeting at the Parkhotel Pforzheim, we exchanged our newest findings in the field of oxidation catalysis and strengthened our collaborations within the consortium to reach our joint goals of identifying active sites and reaction mechanisms in this 2nd funding period. We also used this meeting to jointly start shaping our Transregio for the upcoming application for a 3rd funding period.

Poster Award

[26 September 2024] Congratulations!

Our PhD student Anas Akhtar was awarded with a poster prize. His poster on Investigation of Cobalt Oxide-Based Spinels and Hydrous Oxides Under OER Conditions Using Correlative Microscopy was selected among the 7 best posters at the CataLysis conference!

CataLysis Conference

[24-26 September 2024] The 3rd CataLysis Conference took place from 24-26 September 2024 at the CCP in Pforzheim. That biannual international event brings together the communities of the German DFG-funded collaborative research centers (CRCs) and Transregios (TRRs) working within the field of catalysis. This time, around 250 participants from the CataLysis CRCs had the chance to exchange on their latest fascinating research and to discuss interdisciplinary topics. We had selected talks from each CRC/TRR presented in two parallel sessions. The scientific evenings ended with interesting poster sessions. To stimulate discussion, leading national and international experts presented keynote plenary lectures. The TRR 247 invided Prof. Iryna Zenyuk (Irvine University, USA) to give the keynote talk.

It was a very successful and enjoyable event!

New PhD-Representatives-Team

[01 September 2024] During our UnOCat Summer School, which took place from 26-30 August 2024 in Flensburg, all participants elected their new PhD-Representatives-Team: Anastasiia Kotova and Anas Akhtar! Congratulations!

Anastasiia is doing her PhD in Dr. Linnemann's group at RUB. Anas is doing his PhD in Prof. Tschuliks group at RUB. For him its already his second term as a PhD-representative.

Soft Skills Summer 2024

[21 June 2024] We are happy to announce our annual Soft Skills Summer 2024, taking place for the fourth time. This joint event is initiated by CRC/TRR 247, CRC 1242, CRC/TRR 270, 2D-Mature, and CENIDE.

We would like to invite all female PhD candidates and postdocs to be a part of this event and to improve your soft skills.

Gordon Research Conference: Inorganic Chemistry

[08 June 2024] The "Gordon Research Conference: Inorganic Chemistry" took place at the Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island, US from 02-07 June 2024.

Our PhD student Timo Fockenberg (Project C03, DUE) participated in this event. This conference, which takes place every two years, has a long history dating back to 1951. It focuses on the exchange of scientific knowledge between scientists at all career stages. Timo represented our CRC 247 with his work on molecular models to mimic the surface of the nanoparticle surfaces we synthesize and use in our consortium.

New Member

[24 May 2024] Welcome, Prof. Dr. Mei!

We are very happy to welcome Prof. Dr. Mei (RUB) as a new PI in our consortium. Prof. Mei will work on "Modulation of liquid phase thermal oxidation catalysis using optical stimuli". The new project A11 aims at bridging thermal and electrocatalytic reaction conditions to elaborate fundamental insights into common structural motifs/catalytically active sites, facet-specific activities and reaction mechanisms in heterogeneously catalyzed liquid-phase oxidation. The official start of the project is 2024 July 01.

Girl's und Boy's Day

[25 April 2024] At the Girls's and Boy's Day 2024, many interested pupils had the opportunity to gain insights into the TRR 247 projects at the Chair of Theoretical Chemistry II at the Ruhr University Bochum.

57. Jahrestreffen Deutscher Katalytiker

[16 March 2024] The “57. Jahrestreffen Deutscher Katalytiker” took place in Weimar from 13-15 March 2024.

Our PhD candidates Akhil Hareendran (RUB), Jan Smyczek (CAU) and Pascal Fandré (MPI Kofo) participated in this conference, which is recognized as one of the most important European catalysis events. More than 400 experts from universities, research institutes and industry meet annually to present their research, exchange their ideas and share new developments and the latest results in all areas of catalysis.

Akhil’s poster on LaCoxFe1-xO3 Perovskites for the Selective Catalytic Oxidation of Cyclohexane to KA Oil in Liquid Phase was selected among the 5 best posters in the whole conference and was awarded jointly by DECHEMA and GeCatS! Congratulations!

Carl Duisberg Memorial Prize

[13 March 2024] Congratulations!

Congratulations to our TRR 247 member Prof. Corina Andronescu who received the Carl Duisberg Memorial Prize this year! With this award, the German Chemical Society honors Prof. Andronescu for her work in the field of technical chemistry. You can read the respective article on the UDE website in German or English. Congratulations!

New Member of the Leopoldina

[12 March 2024] Congratulations!

We are thrilled that our TRR 247 member Prof. Beatriz Roldán Cuenya has been elected to the Leopoldina (German National Academy of Sciences) in recognition of her scientific excellence and leadership strength. You can read the respective article on the FHI website in German or English.

Congratulations on this glorious recognition!

Annual Meeting 2024

[16 February 2024] From 14-16 February 2024 our TRR 247 Annual Meeting took place at the Kardinal Schulte Haus in Bergisch Gladbach. It was a very productive meeting with intense and fruitful discussions. Our PhD candidates presented in short talks the status of each project. We were also very excited that our Mercator Fellows Prof. Robert Schlögl, Prof. Iryna Zenyuk and Prof. Plamen Atanassov joint this event and contributed with their expertise and panel talks. Iryna and Plamen also joint our PhD network meeting at the first evening and made our AMA-(science related)Session very joyful.

PhD Network Meeting

[14 February 2024] During our TRR 247 Annual Meeting in Bergisch Gladbach, our PhD network meeting took place at the first evening on 14 February 2024. The Mercator Fellows Prof. Iryna Zenyuk and Prof. Plamen Atanassov joint this event in an AMA-(science related)Session. The second part of this meeting was all about the organizational issues of our UnOCat Summer School, which will take place 26-30 August 2024 in Flensburg.

UnOCat Electrochemistry Workshop

[13 February 2024] From 12-13 February 2024 our UnOCat Electrochemistry workshop took place at the Ruhr University Bochum. The workshop was organized and performed by the projects A01, A02 and A09. In lectures, the PhD candidates learned about Characterizing electrocatalytic activity by linear potential sweep methods (LSV, CV) and Characterizing electrocatalytic activity by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The theoretical knowledge was then deepened through lab work sessions. The day eneded with a joint dinner at Q-West. The second day focused on spectroscopy, including a visit to the spectroscope of the Schuhmann lab. Moreover, the electrocatalytic activity results were analyzed and discussed.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

[24 December 2023] Dear all. We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and successful year 2024!

Path to Sustainable Hydrogen

[18 December 2023] Our PI Prof. Dr. Rossitza Pentcheva, PhD candidate Achim Füngerlings, and colleagues have investigated the crystal facet-dependent surface transformation and how this controls the activity of the oxygen evolution reaction. A phenomenon which is poorly understood – so far.

Read the entire press release here.

New Reaction Mechanism for Oxygen Gas Evolution

[02 November 2023] Our PI Prof. Dr. Kai S. Exner has implemented the principle of Walden inversion for the first time in the investigation of catalytic processes on solid surfaces. The focus of his investigations is the evolution of oxygen gas in electrolysers. This reaction determines the energy efficiency in the electrolysis of water, since the overvoltage for this anodic process is significantly larger than for the formation of gaseous hydrogen at the cathode. Read the entire press release here (in German).

Connecting Physicists Across Africa and the World

[19 September 2023] Dr. Stéphane Kenmoe, member of our CRC/TRR 247, is working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Born in Cameroon, he is actively involved in promoting African early career researchers and communicate popular scientific topics in an easily understandable way to the African community. Since 2022, Dr. Kenmoe is editor-in-chief of the African Physics Newsletter (APN), a quarterly online publication launched in 2019.

Poster Prize

[11 September 2023] Congratulations Adarsh!

Our PhD candidate Adarsh Koul (project A02) won the poster prize in the 74th annual conference of the International Society of Electrochemistry, which took place from 3-8 September 2023 in Lyon, France. The poster was entitled Ni-foam modified electrodes for epoxidation of cyclooctene. "We investigated Ni(OH)2 modified Ni-foam substrate for cycloctene epoxidation in different water:acetonitrile mixtures. We also investigated the effect of hydrophobicity by modifying the electrode surface with Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate. We could achieve a conversion of 40 % with a selectivity of above 90 % towards our desired product i.e. cyclooctene-oxide. The results will be published very soon."

New Member

[01 September 2023] Welcome, Prof. Dr. Behler!

We are very happy to welcome Prof. Dr. Behler (RUB) as a new PI in our consortium. Prof. Behler will work on "Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Oxidation Catalysis at Complex Interfaces". The goal of project A10 is the detailed atomistic understanding of the thermal oxidation of small alcohols in aqueous solution at Co₃O₄ surfaces.

Soft Skills Summer 2023

[26 June 2023] We are happy to announce our annual Soft Skills Summer 2023, taking place for the third time, This joint event is initiated by CRC/TRR 247, CRC 1242, CRC/TRR 270, 2D-Mature, CENIDE, SPP 1980, FOR 2284 and the team for Equal Opportunities of the Faculty of Physics at UDE. We would like to invite all female PhD candidates and postdocs to be a part of this event and to improve your soft skills.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2023!

[24 December 2022] Dear all. We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and successful year 2023!

Gottschalk-Diederich-Baedeker-Award for Corina Andronescu

[2 November 2022] Our CRC/TRR 247 member Corina Andronescu was awarded the Gottschalk-Diederich-Baedeker-Award - Congratulations!

After the award ceremony, Corina gave her inaugural lecture at the UDE entitled: “Electrochemistry in Energy Conversion and Storage. From macro to nano scale”.

Read the UDE press release here.

8th Ruhr-Symposium: Functional Materials for Hydrogen

[10-19 October 2022] Functional materials for hydrogen are the focus of the 8th Ruhr-Symposium. In tandem talks, experts from industrial and academic partnerships will discuss concepts, synergies and scientific results.

A special feature of this year’s event is the scheduling of the Ruhr-Symposium together with the Duisburg Future Talks, a public panel discussion sponsored by the MERCATOR Foundation and organized by Duisburg Business & Innovation and the Hy.Region.Rhein.Ruhr association, which will take place as an evening event.

Between the symposium and the Duisburg Future Talks there will be an interesting bridge program, where we invite representatives from industry and the public to visit the NETZ building and the ZBT.

The event will take place at the Fraunhofer inHaus Center at the campus Duisburg.

More information and registration are available here.

PhD Retreat

[5-6 October 2022] The first PhD Retreat of the new funding period took place 5th-6th October 2022.

All new and experienced PhD students of CRC/TRR 247 participated in this 1.5-days event. To break the ice, the event started with a joint visit of an Escape Room in Bochum. The second day was all about networking. The PhD students presented their projects in elevator pitches and first collaborations were established. In the afternoon, the students visited the labs of our CRC/TRR 247 members Prof. Tschulik and Prof. Muhler.

For detailed information about the event, please refer to the agenda.

Kick-off Meeting in Bochum

[15 October 2022] The Kick-off meeting of the second funding period took place at the Ruhr University Bochum on 4th-5th October 2022.

The entire consortium, including project leaders and young researchers, participated in this two-days event. Besides impulse-sessions of our three Research Areas A - Catalysis, B - Analysis, and C - Synthesis, our new members presented their projects and fruitful discussions took place about different research topics and projects of our CRC/TRR 247.

African fictions to boost the scientific culture in Africa

[15 August 2022] Dr. Stéphane Kenmoe, member of our CRC/TRR 247, is working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Born in Cameroon, he is actively involved in promoting African early career researchers and communicate popular scientific topics in an easily understandable way to the African community. In his home country, he is known for TV appearances in which he explains scientific phenomena in a generally understandable and humorous way.

You can read about his latest project, published in Nat Rev Mater, here.

Soft Skills Summer 2022

[01 July 2022] The Soft Skills Summer is an initiative by the CRC/TRR 247, the CRC 1242, CENIDE, the SPP 1980, FOR 2284 and the team for Equal Opportunities of the Faculty of Physics at the University of Duisburg-Essen.

We would like to invite all female PhD candidates and postdocs to be a part of it and to improve your soft skills.

More information about the workshops and registration here.

Second funding period granted for CRC/TRR 247

[30 May 2022] Congratulations!!

CRC/TRR 247 receives funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG)  for a second funding period of another four years (2022-2026).

Many thanks to all who contributed - for the ideas, the enthusiasm and the countless hours of joint work on this project as an amazing team. The new speakers of the second funding period are Prof. Kristina Tschulik (RUB) and Prof. Stephan Schulz (UDE). We are looking forward to another 4 years of exciting joint research!
 
Please find the press release here. For an overview of our researchs and activities of the first funding period follow this link.