Catalysis Science & Technology Blog

Rafael Gramage-Doria received his PhD (2012) from the University of Strasbourg (France) with Prof. Dominique Armspach and Dr Dominique Matt. After a postdoctoral NWO-Rubicon fellowship with Prof. Joost N. H. Reek at the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) and later with Prof. Takashi Ooi at Nagoya University (Japan), he joined the Institute of Chemical Sciences of the University of Rennes (France) as a CNRS senior researcher in 2015, where he obtained his Habilitation diploma (2019).

His research activities include transition metal catalysis for fine chemicals and green chemistry applications, C–H bond functionalization, supramolecular and coordination chemistry, and supramolecular and bio-inspired catalysis. He is author of >40 publications and he has delivered >30 (inter)national lectures.

Read his Emerging Investigator article “Ruthenium-catalysed oxidative coupling of vinyl derivatives and application in tandem hydrogenation” and read more about his in the interview below:

How do you feel about Catalysis Science & Technology as a place to publish?

Catal. Sci. Technol. is regarded as one of the most important journals in the area of catalysis not only because of the excellent impact factor but also because it ensures worldwide visibility of our research contributions. The broad readership is ensured by the different topics related to catalysis from fundamental/specific questions to practical applications. Our humble experience with editors and reviewers has been excellent due to the high standards and professionalism they have.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

We are chemists performing research on homogeneous catalysis using organometallic complexes in the broad sense. Developing new chemical reactions as well as controlling the selectivity when multiple products can form is highly attractive for us. To meet this challenge, we rationally design appropriate organometallic catalysts as well as to carefully fine-tune the reaction conditions.

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

In my opinion, the most interesting scientific questions to be addressed in the future is how to design more powerful, more selective and less energetically demanding catalytic systems. In other words, how can we get more efficient man made catalysts? And the answer to this question might be to look at nature’s catalysts, enzymes, which display unparalleled activity and selectivity in biological transformations. The idea to mimic (some of) their features for implementation in abiological catalysts is a promising pathway.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

I do not feel to be in a position to give any advice at all publicly, but I could share a couple of really good advices I received when I was younger: (1) when preparing a manuscript (or an oral presentation), keep in mind the reader (or the audience) in order to make clear what you wish to communicate (the not-so-hidden message is to provide nice scheme/figures and attractive text); (2) always ask yourself and colleagues what is the fundamental scientific question you are addressing in that project or in that experiment; and (3) be supportive and helpful towards students, we all have been there, so do not forget that.

Keep up to date with Rafael and his research by following his Twitter @Rafa_gramage, and visit his group website here.

Dr David Nelson studied chemistry at the Universities of Edinburgh (MChem, 2008) and Strathclyde (PhD, 2012 with Prof. J. M. Percy). He was then a Research Fellow at the University of St. Andrews (2012-14 with Prof. S. P. Nolan) before taking up a Chancellor’s Fellowship at the University of Strathclyde (2014), where he was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2018. He received a Bürgenstock Junior Scientists Programme Fellowship in 2019 and a Thieme Chemistry Journals Award in 2020. David joined the editorial board of Communications Chemistry in 2020.

David and his team use tools and techniques from physical (in)organic, organometallic, organic and computational chemistry to understand reaction mechanisms and structure/reactivity relationships in homogeneous catalysis mediated by transition metal complexes. Current areas of focus include nickel-catalysed cross-coupling reactions and iridium-catalysed C-H activation reactions.

Read his Emerging Investigator article “Are rate and selectivity correlated in iridium-catalysed hydrogen isotope exchange reactions?” and read more about his in the interview below:

How do you feel about Catalysis Science & Technology as a place to publish?

I’ve always found publishing with the journal to be quite painless. The review process is smooth, the tracker is excellent (and provides more/more up-to-date information than other publishers do), and we’ve always had constructive comments from reviewers and editors that have allowed us to improve our manuscripts.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

We are really interested in understanding reaction mechanisms and how this understanding can be used to optimise reaction conversion and selectivity, and to make reactions more efficient. I really enjoy working with reactions where there is a lot to discover, and where there are still some big questions to be answered. It’s often quite challenging to move beyond empirical observations of “this reaction gives X% yield” or “this is the order of reactivity” to truly understand why this is observed.

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

For C-H activation I think, depending on the specific reaction, there still remain some challenges around decreasing catalyst loadings and around understanding and predicting selectivity. When I teach C-H activation to our undergraduates I like to point towards iridium-catalysed C-H borylation as an excellent reaction that’s widely used across academia and industry, exactly because we can often work at reasonably low catalyst loadings and predict selectivity quite reliably.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

Advice is always tricky to give out, because everyone has a different experience of life and a different career path, but I would encourage early career scientists to consider empathy as an important attribute. It’s always worth considering things from multiple perspectives, when you interact with people directly or indirectly: your students, senior colleagues, technical staff, reviewers, the authors of the papers and grants you review, and so on. What would you want from that interaction, if you were in their shoes? What else might they be dealing with?

Keep up to date with David and his research by following his Twitter @TheNelsonGroup

Takashi Toyao obtained his PhD from Osaka Prefecture University under the supervision of Prof. Masaya Matsuoka for the development of photocatalysts based on metal–organic frameworks and porous coordination polymers. Since 2015, He has served as Assistant Professor at Hokkaido University, where he enjoys catalysis research in an international research group with fantastic collaborators. His research interests include CO₂ utilization, automotive emission control, and lower alkanes upgrading using spectroscopic, theoretical and data science approaches.

Read his Emerging Investigator article “Reverse water-gas shift reaction over Pt/MoO_x/TiO₂: reverse Mars–van Krevelen mechanism via redox of supported MoO_x” and read more about him in the interview below:

How do you feel about Catalysis Science & Technology as a place to publish?

I am very excited because Catalysis Science & Technology is a leading journal in the field of catalysis. I am also grateful to the co-authors who not only made this possible but made it an extremely pleasant and joyful journey.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

I am looking forward to continuing my work on the low-temperature reverse water-gas shift (RWGS) reaction we explored in this most recent publication as well as on reactions that would help to solve energy and environmental issues. We try to seamlessly integrate experiment, theory and data science to realize catalysts development and to gain a better understanding of on structure-performance relationship. I hope these activities would lead to establishing a new methodology that accelerate paradigm shift away from the use of traditional catalysis research where trial-and-error methods are already reaching the limit

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

I think that rational catalyst design would be the most important. The discovery of truly novel catalysts and catalytic reactions is a formidable task, and as a result, many of the advances in this field of catalysis have arisen from trial-and-error investigations which are often too resource intensive and intellectually frustrating. Establishing effective and accurate catalyst design guides through the fundamental understanding of catalytic processes could accelerate the development of novel catalysts.

Dr Chunfei Wu is a Reader at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and the Chemical Engineering Programme Lead at Queen’s University Belfast. He has worked in the areas of converting renewable and waste resources to energy, fuel, and chemicals through catalytic thermo-chemical routes for more than 15 years. Dr Wu has also been involved in several EPSRC, Innovate UK, Royal Society and EU projects. He has published more than 150 peer reviewed journal papers with >6000 citations (H index of 45, Google Scholar) in the areas of catalytic thermo-chemical conversion of wastes and carbon capture and utilisation. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Carbon Capture Science & Technology, the Managing Editor of Biomass and Bioenerg. He is a Charted Scientist and a Member of Royal Society of Chemistry.

Read his Emerging Investigator article “Coked Ni/Al₂O₃ from the catalytic reforming of volatiles from co-pyrolysis of lignin and polyethylene: preparation, identification and application as a potential adsorbent” and read more about him in the interview below:

How do you feel about Catalysis Science & Technology as a place to publish?

Catalysis Science & Technology is a high profile journal in the research area of catalysis. Its fast processing of manuscripts is attracting me to publish papers. I definitely recommend the journal to my colleagues.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment and what do you find most challenging about your research?

I am excited about developing novel and applicable technologies to upcycle waste plastics. However, the key challenge is to demonstrate its commercial potential and deploy the technologies.

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

In the area of waste plastic recycling, the key question is whether the recycling technology is robust, economically feasible and environmentally friendly.