Two EAM Starting Grants 2024/2025 awarded
After a high level of competition, the Executive Board of the FAU Competence Center EAM decided to award two new Starting Grants to FAU researchers. The EAM Starting Grant aims to support young researchers to pursue their own research projects and thus gaining a boost for a successful academic career. The grant is intended to bring new contributions and ideas into FAU EAM’s research activities and serves as seed funds for the preparation of new proposals.
For 2024-25 the following awardees were chosen:
Photochemical Rules and Insights for Systematic Modeling – PRISM
Jun.-Prof. Carolin Müller
Computational PhotoChemistry Group
Photochemistry offers transformative potential for sustainable chemical transformations, but its full promise remains unrealized due to a lack of clear design principles and detailed understanding of electronically excited states. This project aims to address these challenges by leveraging computational chemistry and data-driven methods to uncover the mechanisms driving photochemical reactions.
Through the development of quantum chemical models and predictive tools, the research will reveal how structural and electronic features evolve during light-induced processes. These insights will enable the rational design of molecules and materials with tailored excited-state properties, paving the way for innovative applications in sustainable chemistry and material science.
Contact: carolin.cpc.mueller@fau.de
Producing sustainable fuels by plastic waste hydroconversion through metal phosphide catalysts
Dr.-Ing. Patrick Schühle
Head of BMBF junior research group Catalytic Systems for Chemical Energy Storage
Goal of this project is to study and develop transition metal phosphide (TMP) catalysts for the hydroconversion of plastic waste. Plastic pollution has emerged as a global environmental crisis, with adverse effects on ecosystems and human health. In response, catalytic hydroconversion is a promising technology that has gained momentum as an environmentally responsible approach to recycle plastic waste and to produce valuable chemical building blocks and fuel compounds. However, plastic waste is complex and diverse in its composition, requiring robust and adjustable novel catalysts to improve the efficiency and sustainability of plastic waste hydroconversion.
TMPs are promising catalysts for both, hydrocracking and hydrogenolysis of plastic waste that potentially have several advantages over traditional catalysts, e.g. high thermal and chemical stability, low coking tendency, and a tunable bifunctional metal/acid character. In addition, the phosphorous can effectively adjust selectivity in such complex reaction networks by altering steric and electronic properties of active metals. This study will explore the TMP catalyst’s effectiveness in hydroconversion reactions. Two representative polymers will be employed: The polyolefin LDPE, and the oxygen-containing PET. The metals chosen for exploration include Ru (a noble metal), alongside Ni and Mo (non-noble metals). Specific TMP catalysts with the best combination of performance and stability will be selected to optimize reaction conditions, product quality, and yield with selected polymers. Moreover, the study focuses on the material and operation stability of novel catalysts, of addressing a major risk of deactivation (e.g. by coking) in polymer hydroconversion.
Contact: patrick.schuehle@fau.de