Green Chemistry: ENgineering a better Catalyst for a Sustainable Future
A research team from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the University of Padua, hte GmbH, and BASF SE has published a groundbreaking study in the Journal of Catalysis:
“Carbonylation catalysis of aryl halides through active-site engineering” (DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2026.116733).
The study introduces a novel Pd₃P catalyst, engineered through the deliberate combination of palladium (a d‑block metal) and phosphorus (a p‑block element). This active-site engineering strategy results in a twofold increase in catalytic activity and effectively prevents catalyst poisoning by carbon monoxide. The outcome: higher efficiency, longer catalyst lifetime, and a significant step toward more sustainable chemical processes.
For NFDI4Cat, this work exemplifies how digital research data, structured catalyst information, and interdisciplinary collaboration can accelerate the discovery and optimization of new materials. It demonstrates how data‑driven methods and open science practices bridge the gap between fundamental research and industrial application.
NFDI4Cat actively promotes this exchange of knowledge from FAIR data management and reproducible experiments to open tools for catalysis research.
This study shows how researchers within the NFDI4Cat network contribute to the transformation of chemistry toward sustainability and circularity, combining cutting-edge experimental insight with digital innovation.
A heartfelt thank you goes to the authors Arjun Neyyathala, Felix Jung, Claus Feldmann, Simon Barth, Jan-Dierk Grunwaldt, Ivana Jevtovikj, Stephan A. Schunk, Paolo Dolcet, Silvia Gross, and Schirin Hanf for their outstanding research and valuable contribution to advancing a more sustainable, data-driven, and collaborative catalysis research.
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