University of Leipzig — Institute of Chemical Technology
The Institute of Technical Chemistry at the University of Leipzig links the fundamentals of materials science with technical-industrial applications in research and teaching. The scientific objectives pursued at the institute are directly derived from the environment of an innovation-driven, sustainable chemical industry. In this way, an approach of experimental heterogeneous catalysis and applied materials research based on technical chemistry is consistently pursued. In addition to adsorptive material separation and sensor technology, current application areas of the materials include in particular the conversion and storage of regenerative energy, e.g., the selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides in diesel exhaust gases in operation with biofuels or photo- and electrocatalytic routes for hydrogen production.
Another focus is the targeted preparation of nano-porous monolithic materials. The pore diameters of the materials span a wide size range and thus allow the investigation of cross-scale phenomena in materials science and heterogeneous catalysis. For such studies, syntheses of materials with hierarchically structured pore systems developed at the institute by combined templating strategies (exo- and endotemplate) or sol-gel techniques are consistently used and further developed. By means of diverse methods of physico-chemical solid characterization, access to the understanding of structure and mode of action of nanoporous functional materials is achieved. This concept thus combines materials-oriented work with applied engineering catalysis and materials research.