Date: 18 June
Hour: 2 p.m.
Venue: South Tower, QA.1.4 amphitheatre, Alameda campus
«Prof. Markus Niederberger (ETH Zürich) will deliver the upcoming IST Distinguished Lecture, titled “Wet Chemical Synthesis and Processing of Nanoparticles”, on 18 June 2024. This event is co-organised by CERENA’s Technology Platform on Microencapsulation (TPMI) and the Scientific Area of Chemical Engineering Sciences at the Department of Chemical Engineering (DEQ) at Instituto Superior Técnico.
Abstract:
Wet chemical processes are at the heart of my laboratory’s research activities. From the synthesis of inorganic nanoparticles to their processing and application in energy storage and conversion, they play a decisive role in whether a material or device ultimately fulfills its function.
In this talk, I will introduce the non-aqueous sol-gel synthesis of metal oxide nanoparticles and selected formation mechanisms that allow, at least to some extent, rational planning of the synthesis of a given nanomaterial. Nevertheless, unexpected reactions occasionally occur in such syntheses, which in our case lead to interesting materials suitable for corrosion protection and heating fabrics. Strategies are proposed to assemble the nanoparticles into three-dimensional porous networks that, after supercritical drying, result in aerogel monoliths with macroscopic sizes [1][2]. Careful selection of the nanoscale building blocks allows subtle tuning of the compositional and morphological properties of the aerogels depending on the application. As an example, the use of metal-metal oxide composite aerogels in the photocatalytic reforming of methanol in the gas phase will be presented.
Speaker bio:
Markus Niederberger is a Full Professor in the Materials Department at ETH Zürich (Switzerland). His research interests cover several areas based on materials chemistry and research into nanoparticles and aerogels.
His research group (Laboratory for Multifunctional Materials) specialises in wet chemistry processes, ranging from the synthesis of inorganic nanoparticles to their processing and application in energy storage and conversion, playing a central role in the performance of a given material or device. Prof Niederberger has collaborated with professor from the Department of Chemical Engineering (DEQ) at Instituto Superior Técnico, namely through the Solar2Clean project funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).
Prof Niederberger is a member of several societies, such as The Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Chemical Society, and the Materials Research Society, and an Advisory Board member of several prestigious journals, such as Advanced Materials, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Matter, etc.
