SOLAR FUELS RESEARCH AREA · ACTIVE FOR 15+ YEARS
Seven ways we turn light into chemistry
Commodity chemicals from nothing but sunlight and abundant feedstock. We design the photocatalysts, understand their mechanisms, and benchmark them so the numbers can be trusted.
Photoreforming of biomass & polymer waste
Water oxidation is the hardest half of water splitting. We replace it with oxidation of waste organics — PET microplastics, lignin — converting them into hydrogen, methane and high-value liquid products. Two angles: active, selective photocatalyst design and mechanistic understanding for rational process engineering.
Bridging homogeneous & heterogeneous photocatalysis
Solid-state supports bring stability and optoelectronic quality; molecular catalysts bring structural and functional tunability. We merge them into well-defined hybrid photocatalysts — and benchmark performance systematically under both homogeneous and heterogenized conditions.
All-inorganic metalate clusters
Polyoxometalates and polythiometalates — molecular oxide and sulfide clusters — wired onto UV/visible-light-active substrates as a platform for heterogeneous photocatalysis. Model systems for substrate effects, interfacial charge transfer and catalytic steps.
Towards single-metal-site photocatalysis
Individual metal atoms immobilized on photocatalyst surfaces — the intersection of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. Site-isolation strategies and adsorption-limited impregnation, from earth-abundant Cu and Ni to Pt and Au, now extended to metal-organic frameworks as matrices.
Molecular photosensitizers & catalysts
Years of collaboration with synthetic groups worldwide built our expertise in evaluating new molecular photosensitizers and (photo)catalysts — from POM clusters for water oxidation to novel organic compounds.
Design of earth-abundant co-catalysts
Replacing Pt, Pd and IrO₂ with oxides of Mn, Co, Fe, Ni and Cu. We unraveled in-situ Ni self-activation, early-stage deactivation, and thermally induced Cu diffusion — the mechanistic groundwork for co-catalysts that could scale.
PhotoLab: our photocatalysis facility
A state-of-the-art facility for reliable, reproducible, benchmarkable photocatalytic experiments — recognized on the Austrian and international scale, with a high number of cooperative research projects producing in-depth investigations of photocatalytic properties.