10 million euros for the search for new electrocatalysts

An international group of researchers with participation from the University of Bern is using new concepts to search for efficient and durable electrocatalysts for the energy transition. They are being funded by the European Research Council (ERC) with 10 million euros. Hydrogen is considered the energy carrier of the future. To produce it, reactions have to be catalysed, some of which take place under extreme conditions. Previous electrocatalysts usually cannot withstand this for long - new materials are needed that are both powerful and durable, and ideally do not contain expensive and scarce elements. A Danish-German-Swiss research consortium is systematically taking a new approach in the project "Directed Evolution of Metastable Electrocatalyst Interfaces for Energy Conversion", or DEMI for short. In order to be able perform a targeted search, the professors Jan Rossmeisl from the University of Copenhagen, Alfred Ludwig from the Ruhr University Bochum, Karl Mayrhofer from the Helmholtz Institute Erlangen Nuremberg/Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg and Matthias Arenz from the Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Bern are pooling their expertise.