Mario de Bruyn

Research

The project is a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin at Madison (USA) and the Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis group at Utrecht University (the Netherlands). The first two years of the project will be conducted at the University of Wisconsin in the group of Prof. James Dumesic, and will concern the making of heterogeneous catalysts using atomic layer deposition (ALD).
In the third year, Dr. De bruyn will move to the group of Prof. Bert Weckhuysen. Then the prime focus of the project will shift towards the characterization of the developed ALD catalysts using advanced Raman/IR spectroscopy. Additionally, an overarching goal of this project is to use the ALD catalysts in hydrodeoxygenation and hydrogenation reactions and more specifically of levoglucosenone, a rising specialty chemical directly obtainable from cellulose