Swiss Chemical Society 5 - MatChem PhD Student Award Winners 2026

The Swiss Chemical Society (SCS) supports the scientific community and promotes chemistry-related activities and the information exchange among academic, government, and industrial scientists. Our fie...

scg.ch

Electronic Structures of Pt(0) Complexes and Atomically Precise Clusters from Solid-State 195Pt NMR Signatures

Metal clusters are of broad interest across fields in that they possess unique properties making them appealing for a variety of applications; additionally, they provide fundamental understanding of t...

pubs.acs.org

Electronic Structures of Pt(0) Complexes and Atomically Precise Clusters from Solid-State 195Pt NMR Signatures

Metal clusters are of broad interest across fields in that they possess unique properties making them appealing for a variety of applications; additionally, they provide fundamental understanding of t...

pubs.acs.org

Tailoring Metal Nuclearity of Pt/γ‐Al2O3 Catalysts: When Molecular Precursors Matter

Optimizing Pt/γ-Al2O3 catalysts by surface organometallic chemistry: the MeCpPtMe3 precursor excels in isolating Pt single atoms post-calcination, more than tmedaPtMe2 and CODPtMe2. Reduction forms s...

doi.org

Speciation, Structural Refinement, and Distribution of Ti Sites in Titanium Silicalite‐1 From 47/49Ti NMR Crystallography at 28.2 Tesla

Titanium silicalite-1 (TS-1), used in industrial selective oxidation processes, depends on specific, yet still unresolved Ti sites, dispersed within the framework of an MFI-zeolite. Applying high fie....

doi.org

SATW welcomes 16 new members - a wealth of expertise in key future technologies

The Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences SATW has welcomed 16 Full Members into its network for the current year. The newly elected members represent remarkable achievements in research, innovation a...

satw.ch

35Cl Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance: A Cl-specific Probe of Local Structural Motifs in PVC

35Cl nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) and Density functional theory (DFT) computations are combined to characterize chlorine environments in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and detect structural defects. Calculations validated against reference data enable to classify two main groups of signals: terminal and internal chlorines, the former having ∼1 MHz higher ν. We also predict distinct 35Cl NQR signatures for chlorine vacancies and additional vicinal/geminal chlorines, resulting in an increased ν. Using this methodology, two types of PVC samples are analyzed: commercial high-MW and low-MW PVC. Both show numerous Cl environments associated with both terminal and internal Cl, as well as additional features indicating the presence of Cl defects. Analysis of a partially dechlorinated PVC reveals that dechlorination primarily occurs at the terminal positions, while multichlorinated sites are less reactive and remain mostly untouched. This combined computational–experimental approach demonstrates that 35Cl NQR can sensitively distinguish chlorine sites in PVC, enabling the direct detection of defects relevant to stability, degradation, and recycling strategies.

pubs.acs.org

XXVI Swiss NMR Symposium

The 26th Swiss NMR Symposium will take place at EPFL on Thursday 5th February 2026. This biennial one-day meeting brings together workers in the field of magnetic resonance from across Switzerland and...

epfl.ch

The Universal Role of Gallium in Promoting Methanol Formation across CO2 Hydrogenation Catalysts

ConspectusThe production of value-added chemicals from CO2 has been a thriving topic of research for the past few decades because of its contribution to a circular carbon economy. Combined with CO2 capture and storage, thermocatalytic hydrogenation of CO2 to CH3OH with green or blue hydrogen, offers an attractive route to mitigate CO2 emissions and to decarbonize the chemical industry. Numerous studies have been focused on catalysts based on supported metallic nanoparticles; these catalysts consist of at least one transition or coinage metal and a promoter element combined with an oxide support to disperse the active phase. Besides Zn-promoters used in Cu-based hydrogenation catalysts, numerous reports point to Ga as a promoter for methanol synthesis. In recent years, Ga has been shown to convert almost all transition metals toward selective methanol synthesis, but its specific role remains a topic of discussions.In this Account, we summarize how surface organometallic chemistry (SOMC) has enabled the discovery of novel catalysts and the development of detailed structure–activity relationships. Particularly, we show that Ga uniquely generates alloys with transition and coinage (Cu) metal elements across groups 8–11 and converts them into selective methanol synthesis catalysts. Specifically, we highlight the role of M–Ga alloy formation, alloy stability, and the formation of M(Ga)–GaOx interfaces under reaction conditions. This has been possible thanks to the combination of SOMC, which enables the formation of supported nanoparticles with tailored compositions and interfaces, and state-of-the-art characterization including operando techniques along with computational modeling, including ab initio molecular dynamic calculations. Dynamic alloying–dealloying behaviors under reaction conditions and the formation of M/MGa–GaOx interfaces are identified as key drivers for efficient methanol formation.

pubs.acs.org

Si‐Doping Switches the Reactivity of Cobalt from Methanation to Reverse Water–Gas Shift in CO2 Hydrogenation

Si-doping is found to switch the reactivity of cobalt catalysts in CO2 hydrogenation from methanation to the reverse water–gas shift reaction. Using a surface organometallic chemistry approach, cobal...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Disentangling the Promotional Roles of Interfacial and Alloyed Sites in PtCr Catalysts for CO2 Hydrogenation

Promotional effects are ubiquitous across catalytic processes involving supported nanoparticles, where additional elements, known as promoters, significantly enhance the catalytic performances (activity, selectivity, and/or stability) of nanoparticles. However, the inherent complexity of catalytic materials, comprising multiple species located both in the bulk and at the surface, makes it difficult to pinpoint the role of promoters at the molecular level. In this study, we disentangle the effect of alloying and interfacial sites in a low-temperature reverse water–gas shift (RWGS) reaction, a key process in the chemical industry, by precisely constructing catalysts featuring narrowly dispersed alloyed PtCr nanoparticles with or without Cr(III) interfacial sites. Notably, we show that a catalyst containing exclusively PtCr alloys, PtCr@SiO2, displays a substantial increase in catalytic activity compared to monometallic Pt@SiO2, while having additional Cr(III) interfacial sites (PtCr-Crint@SiO2) further improves the catalyst performance. In situ spectroscopic results reveal that the PtCr alloy facilitates a redox reaction pathway, whereas the presence of Cr(III) interfacial sites greatly facilitates CO2 adsorption and opens an additional formate-mediated pathway, further accelerating the reaction. These findings highlight the power of well-defined model systems in elucidating the promotional effects at the molecular level.

pubs.acs.org

ICONS Series

Konstantin Ivanov intercontinental magnetic resonance seminar series started on April 8, 2020. It organises seminars on a range of topics in magnetic resonance covering NMR, EPR, hyperpolarisation, co...

sites.google.com

NMR Signatures of Transition-Metal Nuclei: From Local Environments and Electronic Structures to Reactivity Descriptors in Molecular and Heterogeneous Catalysis

This Perspective summarizes the current state of the art in understanding the local environments of metal sites across homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts by means of solid-state nuclear magnetic ...

pubs.acs.org

‘Landmark paper’ reveals how environment affects individual catalytic atoms’ activity

Research could improve single-atom catalyst design

chemistryworld.com

Coordination of Pt Single-Atom Catalysts via NMR: Experiment and Theory - SCM

scm.com

‘Landmark paper’ reveals how environment affects individual catalytic atoms’ activity

Research could improve single-atom catalyst design

chemistryworld.com