Author: Kiran Adhikari

“You have to do things others have not yet done; combine chemicals that others have not yet combined; under conditions that have not yet been tried.” Ulrich Kortz sees himself as a passionate basic researcher. In 2008, the Chemistry Professor at Jacobs University in Bremen discovered a new class of compounds, the polyoxopalladates. Now the scientist and his team have developed another subclass of these functional materials. For the first time, they have combined two precious metals, palladium and silver, in a molecular metal-oxo assembly – with great benefits for science and industry.

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Too much manure, too much fertilizer: In many places in Germany, intensive agriculture is endangering water quality. The nitrate levels in groundwater are too high. A research team at Jacobs University led by the Chemistry Professor Ulrich Kortz has now discovered a new way in the lab to reduce nitrate contamination in water – with the help of so-called polyoxometalates, in short: POMs.

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January 26, 2015

Conventional fuel cells based on platinum catalysts are too expensive for widespread use. Cheaper systems, however, are significantly less efficient. An international research group including scientists from Jacobs University has now developed a novel catalyst, without platinum and with higher efficiency.

In the fight against climate change, fuel cells are one beacon of hope. They produce electricity from hydrogen and atmospheric oxygen. Instead of exhaust fumes, the only waste product is water. The required hydrogen can be produced sustainably,  for example by solar energy.

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Johnson Matthey and Alfa Aesar support new platinum group metals research

Polyoxometalates (POMs) are a large class of discrete, soluble metal-oxo anions of early transition metals in high oxidation states, such as tungsten(VI) or molybdenum(VI). Due to a unique combination of properties, such as thermal and oxidative stability, tunability of acidity and redox activity, solubility in various media, and ability to undergo multistep multi-electron transfers without structural changes, POMs keep attracting more and more attention in different areas of fundamental and industrial science, in particular in homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis.

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February 14, 2011

Ulrich Kortz, Professor of Chemistry at Jacobs University, and his team report the synthesis of a novel, discrete noble metal-oxide, containing a record number of 22 palladium atoms, as well as two central copper ions. In addition to its high catalytic potential, this {Cu₂Pd₂₂} cluster compound also exhibits very unusual intramolecular magnetic interactions. The study, which has now been published as a “Very Important Paper” in the Angewandte Chemie International Edition (DOI: 10.1002/anie.201006734), opens new perspectives for a better understanding of noble-metal particulate based oxidation catalysis as well as intramolecular magnetic phenomena of importance in materials and life sciences.

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Vom 28. Juli bis 1. August 2009 veranstaltet die Jacobs University ein internationales State-of-the-art-Symposion zu Synthese und Anwendungen von Polyoxometallaten (POM), einer Klasse anorganischer Metall-Sauerstoff-Molekülen mit großer Strukturvielfalt und chemischen Eigenschaften, die für unterschiedlichste Anwendungen interessant sind, darunter Katalyse, Medizin und Materialwissenschaften. Zentrale Themen der Tagung sind Edelmetall-POM, die in Fahrzeugkatalysatoren zur Anwendung kommen, funktionale Hybridmaterialien sowie Theoriebildung. Erwartet werden rund 150 Teilnehmer aus über 20 Ländern. Die Tagung wird von Ulrich Kortz, Professor of Chemistry an der Jacobs University, organisiert.

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Ulrich Kortz, Professor of Chemistry at Jacobs University, and his team successfully synthesized a polyoxometalate with 100 Tungsten and 20 Cerium atoms that has a molar mass of about 30 kilo Dalton. With a maximum diameter of 4.2 nm the inorganic molecule is comparable in size to large complex bio-molecules or even small viruses. The reaction conditions and the molecular structure are now published as cover story of the current issue of Angewandte Chemie (doi: 10.1002/anie.200701422).

[ Aug 08, 2007]  Polyoxometalates are anionic metal-oxygen clusters of large structural diversity with chemical properties, which make them especially interesting for applications in catalysis, but also in materials science and nanotechnology. Ulrich Kortz and his co-workers now achieved the synthethis of the tungstogermanate [Ce₂₀Ge₁₀W₁₀₀O₃₇₆(OH)₄(H2O)₃₀]^56-, which belongs to the polyoxometalates, by condensation of the precursors [α-GeW₉O₃₄]^10-and Cerium(III) ions in aqueous solution. With about 600 atoms in total, amongst them 100 atoms of the heavy metal Tungsten, the new compound is the third largest molecular polytungstate ever synthesized. In addition it contains the largest number of atoms of the Rare Earth Cerium ever incorporated in such a compound.

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