Nikolay Kosinov receives ENW-M1 grant for innovative catalysis project
Assistant professor in the Inorganic Materials & Catalysis group awarded NWO grant.
The NWO Domain Board Science has approved 21 grant applications in the Open Competition Domain Science-M programme on July 29th. Nikolay Kosinov has received an M-1 grant for his project "Selective hydrogenation in controlled nanoconfinement".
NWO M-grants are intended for innovative, high-quality, fundamental research and/or studies involving matters of scientific urgency. The M-grant offers researchers the possibility to elaborate creative and risky ideas and to realize scientific innovations that can form the basis for the research themes of the future.
Catalysis – the workhorse of chemical industry – accounts for more than 90% of commercial chemicals. Design of more efficient catalytic materials is the core challenge faced by catalysis science in the coming era of sustainable chemistry. In this project a novel concept of force-responsive heterogeneous catalysis will be explored. Ultra-flexible graphene frameworks modified with well-defined palladium sites will be used as catalysts for selective hydrogenation of substituted arenes. The confinement environment inside these catalysts can be reversibly fine-tuned by applying external mechanical force. The proposed concept might open unprecedented opportunities for controlling the rate and selectivity of catalytic reactions.
This ENW-M1 grant of € 400,000.- will be used to fund a PhD position and to assemble the necessary catalyst testing equipment.