A very close look at surfaces and the “big playground” of electrosynthesis

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The 2024 winners of the Ernst Haage Prize (from left to right): Prof. Dr. Barbara A.J. Lechner, Tim Schulte, Dr. Shen-Hsiang Lin, Elisabeth Glöckler and Hinrich Kludig. | Quelle: Thomas Hobirk | Copyright: MPI CEC | Download

Two things became very clear at this year's Ernst Haage Prize ceremony, hosted by the two Max Planck Institutes in Mülheim. Firstly, modern chemical research is incredibly diverse and exciting. Secondly, no matter what area of chemistry the scientists are researching, sustainability plays an important role for all of them in their work.

In his keynote lecture, Prof. Dr. Siegfried R. Waldvogel, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion (MPI CEC), discussed the role that electrochemistry will play in the future. He emphasized how much the share of renewable energies has increased in recent years – and will continue to increase in the future. According to Waldvogel, electrochemistry is of great value for the production of both synthetic fuels and fine chemicals. Among other things, this is because it is a relatively safe technology. Furthermore, it also produces little chemical waste. “Electrosynthesis is a very big playground,” Waldvogel is convinced.

The topic of safety was also the subject of the lecture by Tim Schulte, one of the winners of the Ernst Haage Prize for doctoral students and postdocs. Schulte, who works in the department of Tobias Ritter at the Max Planck Institut für Kohlenforschung, has succeeded in making the risky chemistry with aryldiazonium salts significantly safer.

The second Ernst Haage Prize in this category went to Dr. Shen-Hsiang Lin, who completed his doctorate in the department of Prof. Dr. Walter Leitner at the MPI CEC. Lin, who had already got to know the Mülheim campus during an internship several years ago, gave a lecture on the innovative method of magnetic catalysis, which could also play a role in the production of fine chemicals.

In order to advance chemical research in terms of sustainability, a deeper understanding of the many processes within a reaction is needed in many areas. This became clear in the lecture by Prof. Dr. Barbara A. J. Lechner. The young scientist, who teaches at the Technical University of Munich, was awarded the national Ernst Haage Prize this year.

“We are incredibly proud of the fantastic technicians and apprentices here on our campus,” emphasized Prof. Serena DeBeer, Director at the MPI CEC and Chair of the Ernst Haage Board of Trustees, in her welcoming remarks. Therefore, it is only logical that this year, two particularly outstanding apprentices have been honored for their work: Elisabeth Glöckler, chemical laboratory assistant at the MPI CEC, and Hinrich Kludig, industrial mechanic at the MPI für Kohlenforschung.

The Ernst Haage Prize is named after the Mülheim entrepreneur Ernst Haage, who died in 1968 and who was closely associated with the research of the Mülheim Max Planck Institutes through the scientific and technical instruments, devices and equipment he had manufactured since 1932. Training young people had always been important to him.